


Leap Year

by tullyblue12



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Zutara Month
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 36,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22484752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tullyblue12/pseuds/tullyblue12
Summary: Collection of stories written for Zutara Month 2020
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 220
Kudos: 325
Collections: Zutara Month 2020





	1. All Along Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! Zutara month is starting a little early for me this year since I won't have computer access again until Sunday. That means Day 2 will be up on schedule, and every other day after shouldn't have any problems either. The reason this collection has 27 chapters instead of 29 is because two of the days coincide with two Hopeless updates that fit the prompts, so those chapters will be posted there. Hope you enjoy this one! It was so fun to write!
> 
> Day 1: The Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady
> 
> Katara isn't crazy about high school until she auditions for the Painted Lady in her favorite play...and when she sees who's auditioning for the Blue Spirit. 
> 
> To be continued on Day 10

So far Katara isn’t crazy about high school. She has some friends, but her best friends are a year behind her back in middle school. Her brother takes every measure to avoid her even though Mom told him not to. Suki and Zuko don’t even mind if she hangs out with them, just Sokka. The only period they even have together is lunch. It makes matters worse when it seems like everyone has best friends in all their classes. It looks like Katara was the only one who didn’t get the memo. 

All that changes when she sees a poster for the theatre club on the bulletin board next to the cafeteria. The school is hosting auditions for the upcoming school production of--wait for it--The Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady, which just so happens to be Katara’s ultimate favorite play of all time. 

The play is the story of two spirits in the Spirit World, who see the mortals on Earth struggling and cross over into the physical world, even though they’re forbidden from entering the physical world by Raava, the spirit of light. The two of them cross anyways and fall in love on Earth. It’s her mom’s favorite story too. It’s their special tradition to go see the Ember Island Theatre Company’s production of it every year.

Now she has the chance to play a part in it. When she spies the sign-up sheet underneath the poster, she doesn’t hesitate to sign her name. Next to her name, there’s a spot for the character she’s auditioning for. She smiles. _Of course_ she’s auditioning for the Painted Lady. She marks the audition in her planner right away and lets Sokka know she’ll need a ride from school. She lets Suki know, too, in case Sokka forgets.

She memorizes her lines in a day. She spends any free time researching acting tips and watching performances online to get the nuances of her favorite character just right. When the day comes, her mom wishes her luck and Gran Gran tells her to call immediately when she finds out. She isn’t even nervous when she walks into the auditorium for the audition, just excited. A few rows of students sit near the front, and she walks over with her things to take a seat with them. 

She’s even more excited when she spies him in the row ahead of hers. She knows that head of gorgeous jet black hair anywhere. She taps on his shoulder to confirm. 

He turns back to look at her and smiles over his shoulder. “Hey, Katara.”

“Hi, Zuko.” Zuko, Sokka’s best friend, so much sweeter than Sokka and so absolutely hot, the boy Katara’s had the biggest crush on forever. “What are you doing here?” she asks. 

“My mom wants me to join theatre. She says I need to be more involved in the school.”

Katara smiles. His mom’s exactly the type to say that. “So what part are you auditioning for?”

“I’m reading for the Blue Spirit, but I hope I’m bad enough that they put me backstage.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Internally, she thinks, who wouldn’t want that boy center stage?

“Are you auditioning for the Painted Lady?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“I hope you get it.” 

“Thanks. I hope you get the Blue Spirit.” She blushes when she remembers the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady are lovers. The characters even share a kiss on stage. If everything works out the way she prays it will, if _she_ gets the part, and _he_ gets the part, her first kiss _EVER_ could be with Zuko! It’s a lot to take in, so much so that she barely registers she’s supposed to be listening to what he’s saying.

“Maybe we could audition together. Some of the other kids are reading scenes together. That way we can get out of here a little faster.”

Her head spins. Performing a scene with Zuko-- a really poignant scene where the Blue Spirit tells the Painted Lady that no punishment Raava could give would be worse than separation from her--where does she sign?

“Um...yeah...maybe we could.” 

The nervousness doesn’t set in until she’s up on stage with Zuko. In the front row sit the theater club sponsor, the stage director, the assistant principal, and a couple other class volunteers with clipboards in front of them. She’s supposed to start the scene. Now if only she could remember what her line was. 

“If you’re so afraid of Raava, go back to the Spirit World,” she remembers finally. 

“You know I can’t go without you.”

“Well, I’m not leaving. I will never turn my back on people who need me. You used to be the same way.”

“Haven’t we done enough? We’ve sacrificed everything to come here. We’ve worked and worked, and for what? The people we heal don’t stay healed. They keep getting sick! They keep killing each other! Maybe humanity is a lost cause.”

“How can you say that?”

Play-Zuko reaches for his hands. She’s so in-character right now she’ll have to daydream about that later. “Please, my love, come home with me.”

“I’ll never forgive myself if I do. But you go. I can take whatever punishment Raava has in store for me. I don’t want you to suffer too.”

In the play, the Blue Spirit lifts the veil of the Painted Lady’s head covering. Katara isn’t in costume, so he tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. She stores that one away for later too. “If you think there is a greater punishment than living a life away from you, you don’t know me very well.”

This is the part right here. Here, the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady share their kiss. Here, the theater sponsor interrupts them. 

“That was great, you guys! Thank you! We’ll send you guys the list when we make our decision.”

She follows Zuko down the steps, dizzy with bliss. When they’re all dismissed, Katata searches for Sokka’s car in the parking lot. It isn’t there. There is an apologetic text message on his phone, saying Suki’s car broke down and he had to drive her to work. 

She sighs. Her house is two miles away. There goes the bliss. 

“Hey, do you need a ride?” asks Zuko from the driver's seat of his bright red Mercedes, the envy of so many other boys in his class, including her brother. 

“Yes, please.”

She thinks about that later too. When the list gets sent out to everyone a few days later, she isn’t surprised at all that the two of them get the leads. His mom’s thrilled. Her mom’s thrilled. He’s absolutely shocked, but she isn’t. She knows why they were cast together. 

It isn’t hard to be in love with Zuko. 

Her phone dings.  _ Congrats, Painted Lady _

_ You too, Blue Spirit _ . 

Then the weight of it really sinks in. She is going to kiss Zuko. Zuko’s lips will be on hers. Before she sends the message, in response to some impulsive part of her brain, she adds a kissing emoji to the text. Her cheeks burn as she presses send. She’s worried he’ll tell Sokka she’s being weird, or worse, ignore her. Then his name flashes across her screen. He’s sent back a kissing emoji  _ and  _ a winky face. 

She screenshots the message and laughs giddily, unable to believe her luck. 


	2. The Colors of the Sunrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little longer than most of the other entries this month. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Day 2: Momtara and Dadko
> 
> After a bitter end to her relationship with Aang, Katara comes to stay in the Fire Nation with Zuko and his daughter Izumi.

She’s watching the fireworks from his private balcony, hiding far away from everyone. She’s the only one with access to these rooms up here. He took her up once and she loved the view so much he invited her to it anytime she wished, so when she disappears from the party in the ballroom, he knows where to find her immediately. 

Her back is to him. One hand grips the railing of his balcony. The other wraps tightly around the glass of her rice wine. He doesn’t have to see her face to know tears run down her cheeks. 

“You’re not the one who should be hiding,” he tells her. His presence doesn’t even startle her. 

She brings the glass up to her lips. “I used to love his way with people. He was so good at making everyone love him,” she laughs bitterly. “Now I hate it.”

“No one’s forgotten what he did to you.”

“It certainly seems like it.”

“If you think Toph doesn't advocate for you, or your brother doesn’t want to strangle him every time he shows up, or I don’t take every measure to avoid him, you’re mistaken.”

“How dare he!” She shouts, but who can hear her save him over the fireworks. Down below, it’s a celebration of peace, a tribute to the Avatar’s defeat of his father, a celebration of his reign. She should be celebrating down there. She should be praised for her part in all of it, but as great as Aang’s contributions to the people, he saved all his selfishness for Katara, so now she hides away up here with him. 

“Did you see her?”

“Yeah, I saw her.”

She swallows the rest of her drink. He offers to take the glass from her, but she refuses. “Don’t look at me like that,” she tells him. “All pitifully, like I’m some sad, pathetic, pining-“

“I don’t think that at all, Katara. I’m angry with him too. My uncle told me the spirits will punish him. It is the greatest dishonor to them when a man shames his wife.”

“He seems to be doing just fine.” As an afterthought, she adds, “Besides I’m not his wife anymore. I’m a divorced woman. A divorced woman who needs another drink.”

He doesn’t stop her. In fact, he offers to share one with her. He has a bottle of fire whiskey hidden away in his personal bedroom, so he ushers them inside and takes the bottle out of its chest. 

“Don’t you hate how the words follow you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Once you’re marked with one, that’s all they see you as - banished, divorced,” he throws in another one of his own, “widower.”

She pours her empty glass to the brim with whiskey and takes a long sip, grimacing as it goes down. “You were so handsome on your wedding day. So unbelievably handsome,” she says in response, giggling as she says it. 

It is so different from the usual awkwardness that occurs when he mentions his late wife that he laughs in relief. “Thanks, I guess.”

“You’re so tall.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. And handsome.” Another firework shoots off in the distance, and she drinks some more. “And your daughter,” she pauses heavily, and Zuko suddenly remembers how hard it is for her to see Izumi and Lin and Sokka’s brood of children; yet, she loves them all more than anything. “Your daughter is so beautiful.”

“She gets that from Mai.”

“She gets that from both of you.” Another sip. Another tear on her cheek. She wipes it away hastily. He should tell her to take it easy with the whiskey, but the warning dies on his lips. Healing a nation is easier than healing a heart; he knows this personally. 

“I propose a toast,” she says, “to Aang and his new whatever-she-is. Spirits help her if she has his child.”

"Katara-"

“I’m going to bed,” she decides. “I’m getting tired.”

“I’ll call a guard to escort you.”

“No, the people talk enough as it is. I don’t want anyone seeing the _divorced_ woman leaving the _widower's_ bedroom.”

He wants to hold her, or at least offer some of his uncle’s wise advice, but it’s all useless. 

“Goodnight, Katara.”

“Goodnight, Zuko.” She turns to leave, but pauses just before she reaches his grand double doors. “Or…”

“Or?” He prompts. 

“Or I could...stay.” Her hands reach for her robes. She loosens the sash but holds the beautiful pink silk tightly closed around her body. 

He swallows hard. “You could.”

“Should I?”

“You should.”

“When do the servants come?”

“Sunrise.”

She lets the robes fall open, baring the sheerest layer of white silk that drives him absolutely wild. She doesn’t remove the robe from her shoulders. She saunters towards him. In one movement, he tugs it to the floor.

“I’ll be gone by then.”

And she is. 

* * *

Usually, Zuko tucks Izumi into bed. With the party, and the whiskey, and Katara, one of her nursemaids tucked her in last night. Tonight, the honor is all his. 

“Can we have a party like that all the time?”

He smiles and hands her the stuffed dolls she’s slept with since infancy. “I don’t think we can afford it.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Izumi, I had two meetings today about the budget. I’m sure.” 

She turns on her side and tucks her hands underneath her face, pouting at his answer. “Who was that lady with Uncle Aang last night, Daddy?” she asks innocently. 

He sighs. “She’s Uncle Aang’s new girlfriend. Remember when Aunt Katara first came to stay with us here?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“She came to stay with us because she isn’t married to Uncle Aang anymore.” 

“Why not?”

“Well, Uncle Aang is the last airbender in the world, and he wants very badly to have kids because he hopes they’ll be airbenders like him. But your uncle doesn’t think Aunt Katara can have kids, so he asked her if they could break up, and she said yes.” 

That’s the kid-friendly version, he supposes. The reality of it has him calling Aang a self-serving asshole several times. In the real-life version, Aang doesn’t want a divorce. He wants a _hiatus_ , where he spends a year knocking up random girls to have his airbending children, and stays married to Katara because Aang just 'loves her so much'. In the real-life version, Katara throws her arms around his waist and begs him to let her stay since she’s too humiliated to go anywhere else.

But Izumi’s too young for that mess. 

“Okay.”

“Did that answer your question?”

“Yeah. Is it story time now?”

He tickles the underneath of her chin. “Yeah. It’s story time. Which one do you want? Do you want _Love Amongst the Dragons_?”

She shakes her head. “I want Aunt Katara.”

“You don’t want Daddy’s stories?” He holds his hand theatrically to his heart, feigning heartbreak. “You don’t want Daddy?”

Izumi giggles and nestles her head more comfortably against her pillow. She might not make it through a whole story; her eyes are already heavy. “Aunt Katara tells the best stories.”

“Well, Aunt Katara isn’t here right now. You’re stuck with me, so it’s _Love Amongst the Dragons_ or nothing. The choice is yours.”

“Can you get Aunt Katara?” 

On a normal night, sure. The night after the night he fucked her three times in his bed and didn’t speak to her since she snuck out of his room before sunrise, less sure. A lot less sure. 

“Another night, sweetheart. It might take a while to find Aunt Katara, and it’s already late.” 

“Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow. She’ll tuck you in tomorrow.”

“I still want you to tuck me in. I just want her to tell me the story,” she clarifies. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. My mistake. Now it’s time for your favorite story. Once upon a time, there lived a dragon emperor who was cursed by the dark water spirit…” 

Izumi falls asleep before the emperor falls in love. 

* * *

The kids all love to play together when they’re reunited. Sokka’s eldest is eight, and his youngest two are fourteen-month-old twins, and everyone else’s kids fall somewhere in the range. Katara loves to play with them. She has Toph’s two-year-old daughter, Lin, in her lap while Izumi and Kya spin around the garden, pretending to be water fairies. 

“Careful with her. She’s going through a killer hair-pulling phase right now,” Toph comments. 

“She’s fine.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. She’s brutal, aren’t you, Lin? Just brutal. She bites too.”

Katara looks down at the seemingly innocent toddler in her lap. “No, not my Linny.” She kisses the top of the girl’s head. 

“Soak it up, sweetness. Lin and I are leaving tomorrow.” 

“So soon?”

“Yep. My metalbending students need me. They’re basically opposed to letting me have a vacation.” 

“More like you’re opposed to taking one. You’ve been nonstop work since you were twelve.” She looks down at Lin. “Well, with a little bit of time for play.” 

Toph laughs. “Believe me, that’s not play. She’s a piece of work, and her father was a piece of work.” 

Katara smiles sadly. What she wouldn’t give to have her own piece of work. 

“I can feel your self-pity radiating off you.”

“Sorry.” 

“It’s okay. And it’s okay if you can’t have kids. What’s not okay is Aang calling a quits if you can’t. You should do what he’s doing. Find some tail of your own and see if _you're_ really the problem. It could be him. 100 years in an iceberg - maybe it had some effect.”

She sends Lin from her lap towards Izumi and Kya. She doesn’t want Lin to overhear any of this conversation, even if she doesn’t quite understand it. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Toph’s eyebrows quirk in amusement. “Please.”

“You can’t tell anyone.” 

“I won’t.” 

It’s on the tip of her tongue. She wants so badly to say it. _I slept with Zuko._ Part of her still wonders if it even happened. If she tells someone, it makes it more real. But what if he doesn’t want anyone to know? What if he’s ashamed? He hasn’t even spoken to her since it happened. 

“Come on, spit it out.”

_I slept with Zuko. I slept with Zuko. I slept with Zuko._

“I’ll tell you some other time.”

“Oh, my god, you did not just do that to me! You fucking tease!” 

“I know. I’m sorry!”

“Ugh, just when I thought I was going to get something juicy. Wait, where are you going? You can’t leave me alone. Only one of these kids is mine. I don’t take care of other people’s kids. I’m not crazy like you.” 

Katara’s already walking out of earshot while Toph grumbles. She laughs. Toph can handle it. It’s just Izumi, Kya, and Lin. Sokka’s twins are napping, and Ahanu, the eldest, is with Sokka anyways. She’s watched all six by herself before. Usually, she loves it. 

Now, she only wants to find Zuko. 

* * *

There’s a knock on the door of his study. It instantly irritates him. Servants and cabinet members know not to disturb him in his study. He must be hearing things. Then he hears the knock again. He darts up from the chair at his desk and practically rips the door open. He’s ready to yell at whoever finds it upon themselves to interrupt his work when he realizes whoever is Katara. 

“Is this a bad time?” she asks. 

“Um, no.”

“You looked like you wanted to kill me for a second,” she says lightheartedly. 

“You’re probably misreading me.” 

“Probably. You’re not one to lose control of your emotions.” Then she crosses the floor and perches herself on the edge of his desk. She crosses one leg over the other and smirks at him. 

“You don’t usually pay me visits in the middle of the day,” he remarks. “Must be important.”

“It’s not. Just killing time.”

“Oh yeah? Nothing on your mind at all?” She’s been all he can think about nonstop. 

She’s quiet for a second and looks down at the floor, all of her enchanting bravado gone and replaced with quiet vulnerability. “Did you, um, have fun the other night?” she asks him. 

He clears his throat. “Yeah, I did. I thought I made that clear.”

“Well, you did...then. And then yesterday I didn’t see you at all and I thought, maybe, that’s how you wanted it to be now.” 

“That’s not how I want it to be at all.”

“Okay, great, I was just confused about it.”

“I’m sorry about that. I was avoiding you yesterday in case you wanted space. I know you’ve been going through a lot lately, and I didn’t want to add to it.”

“You don’t add to it, Zuko. You take it away.”

He smiles. He understands what she means. Since the other night, he’s felt lighter in a way he hasn’t been since he lost Mai. “Maybe I’ll see you tonight.”

“You will,” she pauses, and his heart beats excitedly. “Izumi asked me to help you tuck her in tonight, so you’ll see me then.” His face must show his disappointment because she fucking _laughs_ at him. “Did you think I meant it another way?” she teases. 

“Nope. I’ll see you tonight. Izumi’s bedroom, right after bathtime. Make sure you have a good story ready to go. She’s very critical these days.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She jumps off his desk. “Well, I won’t keep you. Good talk.” And then before he knows what’s happening her lips are on his in a bruising kiss that sends his head reeling back to the other night when there were far less clothes between them, and before he can react and pull her closer, she’s gone, walking to the door. “See you tonight, Zuko.”

* * *

Along with being a self-serving asshole, Zuko realizes Aang is also a plain idiot. 

Katara arches above him, bathed in candlelight. Her hands grip his shoulders as an anchor. Her knees rub against his silk sheets. Her moans are the most enchanting sound he’s ever heard. She’s so vocal in her pleasure, so open with how much she wants him. Every chance he gets, he presses open-mouthed kisses to her flushed skin. He sucks at the pointed peaks of her breasts and digs his own fingers into her alluring hips, guiding her, meeting her at a point of pure pleasure for the both of them. 

She falls against him after she reaches her peak, and he holds her even tighter as he finds his own within her a few thrusts later. She hums contentedly against his neck and threads her fingers through his hair playfully. 

Aang had this. He had this beautiful, hypnotizing, sensual woman as his wife, and he chose to walk away from her. 

He catches her hand in his hair and holds it with his own. She’ll be gone before sunrise, like she always is, but he’ll make the most of his time with her. Only an idiot wouldn’t. 

* * *

“That was a  _ very  _ good story. Best one all week.”

Katara laughs. “Well, it didn’t do its job. You should be asleep.”

Adds Zuko, “Yes, you should.” 

“Can you tell me another one?”

“Izumi, it’s already late.”

“Daddy, please.” 

Katara taps the little girl on the nose and smiles. “I know just the perfect one. Stop me if you’ve heard it before. It’s called  _ Love Amongst the Dragons _ .” 

“Good one,” Zuko whispers to her before they both kiss Izumi goodnight. 

They hold hands as they sneak through the corridors to his private balcony. He kisses her senseless against the railing while she briefly realizes she hasn’t been sad in days. 

* * *

As a personal friend of the Fire Lord, Katara has special privileges within the palace. One of them is the ability to take Izumi into the city, as long as they’re escorted by a couple of palace guards, of course. 

Katara decides she and Izumi deserve a trip to Katara’s favorite shop near the harbor for some sweetened milk and tea cakes. Izumi reaches for Katara’s hand as they walk down the street. It’s something she’s started doing recently, even in the palace. She’s been a lot more affectionate with Katara recently. She’ll rest her head on Katara’s shoulder in the gardens, and she wants Katara at storytime every night now. Katara doesn’t mind. She hangs on to all of it. She’ll be seven years old soon, this light in her life. She squeezes her hand as they enter the shop. 

Izumi picks the table, and the guards camp out at the table behind them. They wait for their tea cakes and sweetened milk. When the glasses arrive, they clink theirs together. She takes a sip, which turns into a gulp. Zuko doesn’t allow her to have many sweets.

“Is it good?” 

“Mmm-hmm.”

Katara laughs. “Good.” When Izumi doesn’t stop drinking, she says, “Hey, save some to wash down the cake.” 

“Can I have two?”

She clicks her tongue. “I don’t know. Your father wouldn’t like it.”

“Please, Aunt Katara.”

“I love you, sweetie, but I don’t want to be on the Fire Lord’s bad side.”

“Please, please, please.”

“Fine, you can have _one_ more glass of the darn milk, as long as you promise not to tell on me. Deal?”

Izumi nods and finishes all of her first glass. “Aunt Katara?”

“Yeah, sweetie?”

“Can you be my mom?”

She forgets how to breathe. “What?”

“I don’t have a mom,” Izumi states. 

“Yes, you do. She just isn’t with us anymore. She would have loved you so much. Your mom was such a wonderful woman.” But Izumi doesn’t know that, Katara realizes. As much as Katara holds onto the image of her mother, as much as Katara commits to memory the sound of her voice, Izumi never met Mai. Izumi never got the chance to know her. 

“I want a real mom, and Daddy told me you wanted a baby.”

Katara remembers missing her mom, longing for the love and comfort specially given by the woman who brought her into the world. Zuko is an amazing father, but Izumi deserves the chance to have the unconditional love of more than one person. 

They make a perfect pair, a motherless child and a childless woman. It doesn’t hurt that Katara loves her so much, ever since the first time she came to stay when Mai died and Zuko was a clueless wreck who fumbled when placing Izumi in her arms, repeating again and again that he didn’t know what to do. She and Zuko are always there for each other. The two of them make another perfect pair. 

“I love you so much. I would be honored to be your mom. You don’t have to call me your mom, but I’ll be here for you always.”

"I want to call you mommy." 

She’d left the first time she stayed, once Zuko got a handle on things. She and Aang had only recently been married, and he was so insistent on her return. He needed her help rebuilding the air temples. They needed to be ready for the return of the airbenders. _Yeah, right_. 

"Then you can call me mommy."

The next glass of sweet milk arrives for Izumi, and the young girl takes Katara’s advice. She eats the tea cake first, and then she washes it down with the milk. Katara hands her a napkin to wipe the milk from her top lip. 

They stop at a few shops on the way back. Katara learns they both like to window shop. At one of the outdoor booths, Izumi spies a dark water spirit mask sold alongside others. 

“Daddy would love that!” 

“Oh, yeah?”

“ _Love Amongst the Dragons_ is the only story he knows. It’s his favorite.” 

Katara tugs her to the booth giddily. “Then we have to get it for him.” She pays a few coins to the vendor and gives it to Izumi to keep safe for Daddy. Keeping it safe to Izumi is wearing it herself. 

There’s nothing pulling her away anymore, like there was when Izumi was born. Now this golden-eyed girl is an anchor.

And so is her father.

* * *

“I don’t want to go back to my room.” 

“It’s almost sunrise.”

She pouts at him, as if he controls the sun. He wishes he did. He’d never let it rise. “I don’t want you to go either.” 

Her hand is on the knob of the door, but she’s still facing him. She always waits for a minute before she leaves him, like she’s waiting for him to call her back. As much as he wants to, he can’t. A Fire Lord isn’t expected to be celibate, but if the servants ever see him with the Avatar’s ex-wife, the whole nation would know the gossip in a week. 

Already, there are rumors. They aren’t exactly discrete. They take every meal together. They tuck Izumi in together. She’s the only one allowed in his private study. They just make sure no one catches them touching. As long as they aren’t touching, the rumors stay rumors. 

“I’ll see you at breakfast,” she says. 

“It’s not that far away.” 

He tries to be optimistic. But she leaves, and it’s hard. Breakfast is very far away. 

* * *

“You’re not wearing your mask.”

“Izumi, I can’t wear it to official meetings as Fire Lord. There’s a protocol.” 

But his six-year-old crosses her arms in front of her. “I’m telling Mommy.” 

Did he just hear her right? “You’re telling who?” he asks. 

“Mommy. Aunt Katara’s my mommy now,” she answers plainly as if delivering old news. 

“Does she know?”

“Yeah, I asked her if she could be my mom, and she said yes.”

This is definitely not old news to him. “When did this happen?”

Izumi shrugs. “Forever ago.” 

* * *

Katara,

You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, or how deeply I regret my behavior. I was so, so stupid. No one compares to you. No one connects with me like you do. We were perfect together, and I will always be angry with myself for ruining that. Please find it in your heart to forgive me. I want our life together back, the way it was always supposed to be. 

Love always, 

Aang

She burns the letter. 

* * *

“I’ve never felt like this before,” she mentions to him one night in the afterglow, caressing the scar on his face. 

“I know what you mean.” 

She’s never felt such a pull to someone. She’s never felt as understood or appreciated or cherished. Aang never stopped saying he loved her; Zuko never stops proving it. 

“When Mai died, I couldn’t imagine sharing what I shared with her with someone else. But that’s not what this is. It’s not the same. I’m different now. You’re different. Our relationship is different.”

He’s taken a step forward by confessing this. She’s bold enough to take another. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

* * *

She pulls away from him, but he holds her tighter. “Zuko, I’ve got to go. It’s almost sunrise.”

“Stay,” he mutters sleepily against her ear. 

“Zuko, it’s hard enough to leave you as it is.”

“Stay. Stay forever. If I need to write up some official announcement, or bribe some servants, I’ll do it, but I don’t want to spend another morning without you.” He kisses the shell of her ear, and her resolve shatters completely. 

They fall back asleep. The servants wake them. Funny enough, the sky doesn’t fall. The day goes on as normal, and surely the gossip is raging behind her back, but she doesn’t care like she thought she would. She doesn’t care about it the way she cared when they talked about her and Aang. 

She sees the sunrise with Zuko that morning. She sees the colors break through the sky in the most glorious shades of pink and blue, while Zuko’s hair is pulled into his topknot and his ceremonial armor is secured. Zuko, Izumi, and her life with them - that’s all she cares about. 


	3. The Warmonger's Children Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Can you heal minds?"  
> Zuko asks Katara to help him with Azula after the war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: Season 4 Zutara
> 
> I did some research about what was originally intended to take place in Season 4 of Avatar: the Last Airbender and wrote from there. Hope you enjoy!

“I abandoned her.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“When the news broke that Aang defeated my father, I felt victory. But when we fought Azula…well, did you feel victorious?”

She remembered how Azula writhed like an animal in chains, and how she screamed the most heart wrenching shriek, all while Zuko’s weight pressed against her as he struggled to his feet from the brutal wound that should have killed him. 

“No.”

“I was lucky, now that I think about it. I had my uncle. I had been banished. I had the freedom to understand the world in a way Azula never could. My inclinations had already been challenged, but when Azula was finally forced to face the same realities, she couldn’t handle it.”

“So you want me to take a look at her?”

 _Can you heal minds_ , his desperate letter had asked her. It was the first letter they’d received addressed to _her_. All the others went to Aang. But Zuko wrote her a letter that told her Azula’s madness was now her permanent state. His worry for his sister bled off the page and seeped into this evening meal they shared. He wanted to know if there was any hope for her at all. 

Another time, when there was less on his mind, she would tell him she was worried about Aang too, and the new darkness thriving inside him since he stole Ozai’s bending away. Another time, she would admit she was afraid of him. 

“If you’re comfortable with it. I just want to know if her brain is suffering some kind of physical trauma, or if it’s all mental.”

“I’ll do it. First thing in the morning.”

“Thank you, Katara.”

She shuddered. The last time he said that she had started his heart back up in her hands. That whole battle would forever be something only the two of them understood. 

Azula didn’t acknowledge her at all when she went to see her the next morning. She just stared at the metal bars of her cell door.

“We have to lock you in,” a guard said. “Just yell if you need to get out.”

She swallowed down the bile. She could be strong. She could do this for Zuko. “Hi, Azula, I’m just here to make sure you don’t have any injuries.” 

Azula didn’t move. 

“I’ll, um, start with your hands.” Katara reached for one, but Azula ripped her hand away and screamed. Katara jerked back. She was deathly afraid Azula would shoot a wave of fire at her, but she didn’t. She only screamed. The sound reverberated off the damp walls of her iron cell and surged the fear Katara had struggled to suppress. 

Then as suddenly as she started, she stopped. Katara exhaled deeply. “I’m sorry I grabbed you. I wasn’t thinking.”

Azula didn’t respond, but as Katara looked into the blank depths of her eyes, she realized Azula’s hair was a knotted mess. Matted clumps collected at the nape of her neck, and jagged bangs fell in her eyes. “I bet no one’s done your hair, have they?”

So Katara came back with a wide-tooth comb, special soaps, and hair oils. She spent two hours bending water through her hair and detangling the weeks-old knots, smoothing her hair back to a healthy condition. Azula didn’t fight her once, and it gave her the perfect opportunity to probe healing hands against her temples. It would hurt Zuko to know there was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that could be fixed with her “magic water”. 

When she finished, Azula lifted her fingers and ran them through the freshly-combed strands. “Mother,” she called, the first word she had spoken all day. 

“No, it’s not Mother. I’m a friend of Zuko’s.” 

Azula smiled. “Zuzu.”

“Yes, Zuzu. Get some sleep. I’ll be back later.” 

The spices on the chicken burned the back of her throat. She tried some of the soup to wash it down. 

“So, no physical trauma.”

“Not that I saw.” 

He struck his palm into his forehead. “I don’t know what to do for her. I’ve had all kinds of sanatorium physicians talk to her. None of them recommended anything but keeping her locked up for the rest of her life!” 

“While I do admit she isn’t stable now, I don’t think it’ll be like this forever.”

“You always have hope.” 

She rolled her eyes at him, though she didn’t take offense. “Do you know why I have hope right now?”

“Why?”

“Because she smiled when I said your name.” 

The next day, Katara combed Azula’s hair, and after, she gathered it all in her hands and styled it into a neat topknot. 

“I have something for you,” Katara said. She didn’t ask Zuko for Azula’s crown. She wanted to stray away from the influence of their father and recover her memories of her mother. Those memories seemed to be from a more pleasant time. She brought with her one of Ursa’s hair combs and held it out for Azula to see. 

“Look, it’s Mother’s.”

Azula tentatively held her palm out. Katara placed the hair comb in her palm, thinking about how excited she would be to tell Zuko over dinner that night. Then her fist clenched around the comb, and flames erupted from her hands. The melted comb flew towards Katara’s head along with a burst of fire. She ducked as Azula bent formations randomly around the cell. 

The guards got her out of there as fast as they could. 

“I should have known it would be a bad idea as soon as you asked for that comb. Azula hated our mother.”

“Zuko, it’s not your fault.”

“Did she hurt you?” 

“No.”

“Are you sure? Her guards told me it was the most she had firebent since she was put in there.” 

Her face lit up, despite it all. “Maybe that’s a good thing! Maybe it’s good for her to get all that anger out.”

“I’d agree…if she was directing the flames far away from you.” 

“You don’t have to worry about me. You have enough to worry about, _Fire Lord_.”

He shook his head at her. “I worry about the nation as my job. I get to worry about _you_ recreationally.” 

She tried a different strategy on the third day when she went to do Azula’s hair. This time, she wouldn’t mention Ozai, or Ursa, just–

“Zuzu sent me to check on you.”

“Zuzu.”

“He wants to make sure you’re eating.” She wasn’t. Her untouched food usually stayed right where the guards dropped it off, and nobody was going to force feed her. 

Katara picked up a spoonful of oatmeal. It looked terribly unappetizing, but it was food, and Azula’s cheeks were looking rather sunken. She pressed the spoon to Azula’s lips and watched her swallow the bite. She wouldn’t hold the spoon herself, no matter how many tricks Katara tried, but Katara did manage to get her to eat every bite. 

Then Azula threw it all up. Katara patted her back as she cried and murmured soothing words as she expelled all the oatmeal and painfully heaved up bile after the oatmeal was gone. Katara used her waterbending to wash away the mess. She would need the guards to bring more food and water. 

Azula sat in the middle of the floor with vomit in her nose, on her clothes, stuck to her mouth. “Is he okay?”

“Who, Azula?”

“It smells so bad.”

“You just threw up. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

“Is he okay?” she asked again as Katara used her sleeve to clean Azula’s face. 

“Let’s make sure you’re okay.” 

“That’s what happens when you disobey. Suffering will be your teacher. Did you see his face?”

 _His face?_ “Zuko?”

“Did you see his face?”

“Yes, Azula, I saw his face.”

“Is he okay?”

She patted her back again. “Yes, he’s okay.”

Azula stopped crying long enough for Katara to get her to drink some water. Soon after, she got some more oatmeal and fed her a quarter of the bowl to prevent her stomach from getting too full and have the same thing happen again. 

“My name’s Katara,” she said to her because it dawned on her that Azula might not know. “I’m Katara. You’re Azula. You’re okay. Zuko’s okay.”

Azula said nothing. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“I appreciate all the time you’re putting into her care.” 

“Of course.”

“I should be the one to do it.”

“You don’t have the time,” she reminded him. “But maybe you could go to see her. You seem to be the only one she cares anything about.” 

“She hates me. She doesn’t want to see me. She shot me with lightning.” 

_But she didn’t mean to. She was aiming for me._ “If you have the time, go see her.”

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“Katara–”

“Come on, Fire Lord.” 

“Fine. I promise.” 

On the fourth day, she talked and talked, trying to coax some sort of response out of Azula. It was a bit like talking to a baby, talking and talking to someone who couldn’t reply. Azula stared blankly at her as Katara styled her hair, changed her linens, fed her small bites of food. 

“I have an older brother too. Can I tell you a secret? I love him more than anyone in the whole world. If something ever happened to him, I don’t think I’d be okay. I’d go on, but part of me would be missing for the rest of my life.”

Katara was young. Until she was fourteen years old, there hadn’t been a world outside her family and her village. She loved everyone she met; they’d become a part of her family, but Sokka was the one she’s spent most of her life with. Until she started her own family, he would always be the most important to her. They would always understand each other better than anyone else.

She was lost in thought, wondering what everyone else was up to, spoon feeding another bite into Azula’s mouth, when Azula reached out and burned the wrist of the arm holding the spoon. 

“You will learn, and suffering will be your teacher.”

Katara cried out, but Azula’s fiery hand grasped her harder. Tears of pain sprang to her eyes, and she wrenched away from her just in time for the guards to pull her out. One of the guards delivered a blow to Azula’s head, and Azula fell limply to the floor. 

“You didn’t have to do that!” Katara shouted at him, while the rest of her could only register the white-hot pain surging from her wrist. Against her better judgment, she looked down. The sight of the blistering, bloody skin made her stomach turn. She needed to work on this quickly. 

“The Fire Lord must be notified.” 

“No, please the Fire Lord is busy.” 

“He told us to inform him immediately if any incident like this occurred.” The guard critically glanced at her wrist. “It clearly has. You have to be taken to the palace physician at once.”

“I can heal it,” she insisted. She just needed some cool, clean water. She didn’t need a physician to rub salves on it, or Zuko to tell her never to visit Azula again. This was just a setback. It didn’t mean there wasn’t any hope for Azula. Just like it didn’t mean there wasn’t any hope for Aang. 

She did end up agreeing to see the physician, so long as she was given a chance to heal it first. She soaked the blistered skin in cool water to soothe it and set to work on healing the skin. It was not as easy as when Aang burned her while he was learning. Those burns were minor compared to this one. She was able to ease some of the pain and keep the blisters from thickening, but the physician would need to rub a salve on it to prevent infection. The physician also had the proper bandages. 

The physician, named Sazura, was bandaging the wound when Zuko came in dressed head-to-toe in his Fire Lord regalia. “She burned you?”

“Just a little bit on my wrist.” 

“The guards said she held onto you and wouldn’t let go.”

“I was able to get away from her. It’s okay, Zuko. It’s just a little burn.”

Sazura added, “My Lord, with Lady Katara’s accelerated healing, I expect it to heal completely in less than a week.” 

This information did nothing to calm the worried look in Zuko’s eyes. Once the physician finished wrapping Katara’s wrist, she recommended the lady get some rest. It was the only other medicine she prescribed Katara. Zuko offered to walk Katara back to her room. 

“I’m not tired.”

“Then take a walk with me.”

“Don’t you have work to do?” It was the middle of the day. Zuko was usually stuck in back-to-back meetings, pouring over documents, seeking advice. He never had time to walk in the middle of the day.

“Not right now.”

She agreed to go with him. They ended up wandering into some part of the palace she hadn’t had the chance to visit in her relatively short stay. It was a grand room filled wall-to-wall with tapestries of the history of the Fire Nation. 

“I wish you wouldn’t see her again.”

“Zuko, please don’t lose hope.” 

“Katara, I can accept that I’m never going to get my sister back. I can make peace with that. I don’t want anything to happen to you. You don’t need to risk yourself for a lost cause.” 

“I don’t think she’s a lost cause! You don’t either! I know you don’t. You never would have asked me here in the first place if you thought she was.” 

“I want her bending taken away, just like my father.”

“No!” Katara shouted at him. “You can’t do that. You don’t get to decide who gets to bend and who doesn’t. You don’t understand how dangerous that kind of power is.” There were tears in her eyes just thinking about it.

“What do you mean?”

It felt like a betrayal to even say it out loud. “Aang’s not the same.”

“Not the same how?”

“He has these awful dreams at night. He swears they’re memories of your father’s life, and when he wakes in the middle of one of them, he’s merciless and sadistic and destructive. He’s terrifying, and there’s no snapping him out of it until he wakes up completely. No Avatar has ever taken another’s bending before. There’s no one to help him understand the consequences of what he did. There’s no one to help him heal. You can’t ask him to do it again.” 

“Then I won’t.”

“Thank you.” She hugged him. She needed a hug. 

“We’re going to figure out what’s going on with Aang,” he assured her, rubbing his hand soothingly along her back. “I wish you’d told me sooner.” 

“He wanted me to keep it a secret.”

“That’s too much of a burden to put on you,” he said gently. She knew she needed to pull away from him soon, but his arms were too comforting. “Is that why you came here? You thought if you could figure out how to help Azula, you could figure out how to help Aang?”

She squeezed him tighter one last time before she let go. “No. I came here for you.” She looked down at her bandaged wrist and sighed. “I didn’t think the end of the war was going to be like this.”

“Neither did I. I imagined a lot less chaos.”

“Yeah, I was hoping for more parties. Some nice festivals.” 

“Wouldn’t that be nice?” he mused along with her before he steered the conversation back to reality. “When Azula burned you, was it an accident, do you think?”

“No. I wish it was. She said ‘suffering will be your teacher’ like she knew what she was doing.”

Zuko tensed, and his eyes turned cold. “ _What_ did she say?”

Did she even need to repeat herself? From his reaction, she was sure he already knew. “‘Suffering will be your teacher.’ She said it before a couple days ago when she threw up after eating. What does it mean?”

He didn’t reply at first.

“Zuko, what does it mean?”

“It’s what my father said before he burned me.”

An answer to a question she never asked, though she wondered a million times. _Zuko, how did you get your scar?_ Now so many more questions. He was gone before she could ask them.


	4. The Warmonger's Children Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: Don't hurt her; Katara and Zuko look into Azula's past

On the fifth day, Katara went back to Sazura. She applied more of the burn salve and rewrapped the wound. Katara did some of her own healing too. Already it looked so much better, and she was able to move her wrist without pain. **  
**

“Did you treat the Fire Lord after he was burned?” she asked. She couldn’t get Zuko’s scar out of her mind now that she knew his father had caused it. 

“No, my lady. He was banished immediately. I wasn’t allowed to see him,” the older woman replied regretfully. 

“Oh.” It all made sense to her suddenly, why his wound scarred so terribly when hers was healing well. Even without her own healing abilities, Sazura had some of the best remedies in the world. “What about Princess Azula?” 

“Why do you ask?” 

“I’m just trying to understand.” 

The older woman finished wrapping Katara’s wrist. “I am the Royal Family’s physician. I serve the Royal Family. At the head of the Royal Family is the Fire Lord. I served Fire Lord Azulon, Fire Lord Ozai, and now I serve Fire Lord Zuko. I answer to them, and I keep the secrets they tell me to keep.” 

While it wasn’t a direct answer to the question Katara asked, it did help her understand something. It helped her understand that if she wanted answers, she couldn’t tiptoe around Zuko. He needed to be as involved in this as she was. 

“You want me to order our physician to disclose Azula’s complete medical history?” 

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I just have a hunch.” 

“What kind of hunch?” 

“I don’t think you’re the only one your father hurt,” she admitted. 

Zuko stopped eating their dinner. “My father would _never_ hurt Azula. Azula was his prodigy. He was proud of her. He didn’t resent her the way he resented me.” 

“Knowing your father, it’s worth investigating.” 

“Do you think my mother would stand by and let him abuse one of her children? He didn’t even do this–” he pointed to his face “until after she was gone. What do you hope to gain from looking into this?”

“We need to know what she’s fighting inside of herself. We need to understand what she’s been through before we can even think about rehabilitating her.” She added, “If you don’t think anything will come of it, what’s the harm?”

“Fine. I’ll have the physician write me a report.” 

“Thank you.”

“How’s your wrist?”

“A lot better.” 

He reached across the table where her hand rested in a fist and gently flexed one of her fingers out. “Does this hurt?”

“No. It doesn’t hurt when I move it anymore.”

He flexed another finger. “How about this one?”

“Nope.” 

By the third, she realized he was playing with her when she saw the faintest hint of a smile. “Still no,” she replied knowingly, and despite everything weighing on their minds, she smiled back. 

Zuko showed up at her bedroom door two nights later with a stack of papers in his hand, knocking furiously at her door. She threw a robe over her nightclothes and opened the door. 

“Zuko, what’s wrong?”

“You were right,” he said heavily, shoving the papers towards her. Before she could read them, she invited him to sit at the tea table in her guest room, an offer he refused. The last time she saw him so angry, they were on opposite sides of the war. 

“Can you light the lamps? I can’t read this.”

He obeyed, and continued pacing while she read the physician’s report. It was a detailed record, beginning with the princess’s birth. She was sick as a baby with an illness that made it difficult to breathe; the physician treated her with eucalyptus oil. At eleven months, when Azula was learning to walk, she stumbled and hit her head; the physician bandaged the wound. All of Azula’s treatments were relatively normal until the princess was four years old, and she began her firebending training. 

Burns to the legs, shoulders, back. For every burn, she was brought to the physician by Prince Ozai, who insisted they were from her firebending lessons. Each time the physician healed them with the most expensive burn salves available to the nation so that the wounds would not scar. Each time Prince Ozai oversaw the treatment. 

“He was hurting her,” Katara whispered. 

“She never said anything. All that time, I never knew…and my mother…” He angrily pulled his hands through his hair. “She always spent so much time on me to try to balance out how much Father favored Azula. Now I find out it was Azula who needed that protection the most!”

Katara folded the papers and placed them on the table, rushing to Zuko. She wrapped her arms around his waist. The action calmed him slightly. 

“Do you know how many times I was burned in firebending practice? _Never._ We had the best instructors, and none of them would dare burn anyone in the Royal Family. It couldn’t have been one of her teachers. It was _him_. He was always hurting her.” 

“You couldn’t have known,” she assured him, gazing up at his face as she said it. She wanted him to look at her and see her sincerity himself. But he didn’t look at her. He looked straight ahead at some wall while his arms tightened around her.

“I should have. I should have realized the second he burned my face that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to us to get what he wanted.”

“I’m so sorry, Zuko.”

“I am too.” 

He went with her to see Azula the next day. The guards locked them in the cell as always. “Zuzu,” she said. Then Azula’s eyes flitted to her. “Katara.” 

“Hi, Azula,” Katara replied steadily and set to work combing Azula’s hair. Inside, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride. It was the first time Azula ever recognized her. 

“I know what our father did to you,” Zuko said softly, without preamble. He reached his arms out to her, maybe to hold her, but Azula shrank back from him. 

“Where is he?” she shrieked. 

Zuko pulled Katara away from his angry sister and positioned himself as a barrier between the two of them, just like he did at the agni kai. “He’s gone. He’s locked away deep underground, and he’ll never see daylight again.” His breath caught. “I always thought you were just like him. But you’re not. You’re just like me.” 

“I’m not like you!” Azula shouted in protest. “He loves me. Everything he did was because he wanted to teach me. He wanted me to succeed. He loves me. He loves me.”

“No, he doesn’t!”

“Yes, he does!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “He loves me.” 

“When he burned you all those times when we were kids, did it hurt?”

Azula flinched but otherwise gave no indication she had heard him.

“ _Mine_ hurt,” Zuko added.

“It smells bad,” she said airily, sounding less coherent. 

“What?” 

“It smells bad. I hate the smell of burning flesh.”

Katara remembered how her own wrist had smelled as the skin melted. It was something the three of them in this cell had in common, she realized darkly. 

“I never burned you,” Zuko reminded her. “I love you.”

“No, you don’t,” she argued back tearfully. “You never did! Mother never did! Uncle never did! Not Grandfather, not Lu Ten, not even Mai and Ty Lee. Only Father.” 

“Father’s defeated,” he said again, taking a step closer. “And he will never hurt you again. Do you hear me? I won’t let him hurt you. And I won’t let _you_ hurt _her_.” He pointed to Katara, and then with the same outstretched hand, reached for the wrist Azula had burned.

“You hurt her when she’s done nothing but try to help you.”

“I was just playing.” She laughed to punctuate her point, and it sent a chill through Katara.

“Don’t hurt her again.” 

Azula broke down in tears again as Zuko scolded her. It made Katara want to tell Zuko it was alright. Her wrist was completely healed by now, thanks to her work and the physician’s. As she looked at Zuko and Azula–the children of a warmonger, one wearing a crown, the other sobbing against the concrete of her prison cell–she wished all wounds healed so quickly. 


	5. The Underworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5: Southern Water Tribe Culture; When Lu Ten dies, Iroh flees with his nephew to the Southern Water Tribe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War. In this story, Iroh and Zuko are not royalty. All boys in the Fire Nation are also given to the Academy at a young age, an institution that produces soldiers for the Fire Nation.

In the Fire Nation, he would be training in the Academy. He would be learning drills, formations, weapons, and achieve mastery of his bending. **  
**

But he would likely be dead by his eighteenth birthday, just like the cousin he couldn’t mention anymore on account of his uncle’s enduring grief. When his cousin died in the fighting, his uncle reacting by renouncing the Fire Nation and its war, removing Zuko from the Academy, and relocating the two of them to the farthest point of the world, the South Pole.

Uncle fit in instantly. In no time at all, he was a tribesman. He hunted, and played music, and brewed their neighbors the most delicious pots of tea. But Zuko had never felt more like an outsider. He looked nothing like these people. He didn’t bend their element. He didn’t like their food. He didn’t want to learn to hunt or sail, but that was the way of life here, and as much as he wanted to change it, this was his life now. 

After some time, he grew to like the nights. Under the colors of the Southern Lights, the village gathered together. They ate, and drank, and danced. They laughed and told stories. Zuko liked the stories. He liked watching the young children gather in front of the elders and listen. It reminded him of the way he and Lu Ten would sit at his uncle’s feet and listen to stories from his youth. It was the only time he got to hear about his mother and father. Then those stories ended, and the children would go to bed. 

The adults stayed up a little longer. This was their time to drink more, dance more, and indulge in stories with more adult content. Zuko was sixteen, and he recently completed the rite of passage for boys in the Southern Water Tribe–commanding a large umiak through ice-ridden waters. He was a man by the tribe’s standards. He was happy to stay with everyone a little longer, because, though he would never admit it, he really liked watching the girls dance. 

“You should ask one of the pretty young ladies to dance with you,” his uncle encouraged one night. “There are many your age.”

“No, thanks, Uncle.”

“They would not say no to such a handsome young man.”

He sunk lower in his seat in embarrassment, pulling at his parka. “ _No, thanks, Uncle_ ,” he grunted. 

“The Chief’s daughter is a very nice girl.” 

His eyes snapped to her, dancing in the middle of the room. She had a tiny drum in her hand, and she beat it in perfect rhythm with the others playing the song. Her hair was falling out of its style, and her cheeks flushed from the exertion, but she looked so happy. He knew her. _Everyone_ knew her. Everyone loved her. He couldn’t dance with her. Katara was the prettiest girl of them all, and the kindest. There was no way she would dance with him. There was no way he could even presume to ask her. 

“It is also very attractive to young women when a man makes their interest known.”

“Please stop.” 

“Oh, the sensitivity of youth.” 

A few more nights passed like this, eating salty food, listening to the stories, enduring the pestering of his uncle, and watching Katara dance. He used to appreciate looking at _all_ the girls his age, but he found himself more and more entranced by Katara. 

She approached him eventually, and he thought he was about to face the most humiliating moment of his life. He thought she’d finally caught him staring at her and had come to tell him to get lost. But then she smiled at him. 

“Do you like to dance?”

“Not really. I’m no good at it.” 

She laughed. “Neither am I.”

“No, I’ve seen you. You’re amazing.” 

When he admitted that, he blushed, thinking he’d said too much, but she smiled wider and her nose crinkled in the most charming way. “Everyone says girls aren’t supposed to ask boys to dance, but I’m tired of waiting. Would you like to dance with me?” 

In a minute, his heart belonged to her. He finally understood every love story the elders ever told. “Yes, I would. Very much.” 

“Well, come on then.” 

He knew enough about Southern Water Tribe culture to know that dances were their own language. One dance among men and women meant _“nice to meet you”_. Two dances, _“I enjoy your company”_. Three dances, _“we should discuss entering an official courtship”_. Zuko and Katara danced _seven_ , every dance until the night ended.

He was carving her betrothal necklace within a year. During that time, Zuko learned to appreciate life in the Southern Water Tribe even more. As Katara’s betrothed, he developed a good relationship with Chief Hakoda, who he often accompanied on hunts and trips to trading posts. 

He now knew the stories well enough to recite them to the young boys he taught to carve weapons. The most important story of all was the story of the Underworld. 

_We go to the sea when we die. We bury our dead at sea, so their souls may find their bodies below. Our ancestors live in the Underworld. They push the tides, and they send us fish, and they guide our ships home._

It was the most integral belief of the Southern Water Tribe, the faith in an afterlife below the sea, and it was the story Zuko loved the most. On every fishing trip, at every trading post, he liked to believe his parents and his cousin played a part in guiding him home to his uncle and Katara. 

Oftentimes, at the trading posts, they received updates about the war. The airbenders had all been killed, one man said, and the Earth Kingdom was preparing their military for a retaliatory strike against the Fire Nation. They were never going to win, though, even with the numbers. Like he told Katara, it was the responsibility of every married woman in the Fire Nation to bear at least two sons to be absorbed into the Academy at the age of six. His mother died before she gave birth to a second; he still didn’t know what happened to his father. 

He married Katara under an archway of ice, adorned with frost-covered vines and carvings of their Gods for protection. She used her bending to help him build the home they would share for the rest of their lives. He developed a taste for the salted meats and burning alcohol. The bitter cold of day became worth it for the encompassing warmth of their marriage bed. 

_This_ was why Uncle brought him here. This was true family, community, safety, peace, and love. 

Then came the black snow. Fire Nation steamships charged through their icy waters and unloaded Academy-trained soldiers on the shores of their village. These were the men who looked like him, who thought like him, who could control their inner fire as precisely as he could. These were the kindred citizens of his homeland who had come to destroy his home. 

And they wanted _Katara_.

She fought alongside him and the other warriors. Male and female waterbenders joined her, and it became obvious the waterbenders had been the target all along. Bone clashed with steel; fire fought fire; water subdued flame; and somewhere in the middle, Katara’s body laid still along the ice. 

They left the dead as a “kindness”. They took prisoners as another, his uncle among them. The world was a darker place after that, a place he didn’t want to live anymore. 

_Our loved ones live in the sea when they die. They have no need to breathe air, for they are immortal. They have no need to hunt. They do not know cold or strife. They just live._

When the tribe sent Katara’s body with the rest out to sea, he followed her. He could hear the shouts for him to come back. He could feel Hakoda grab his soldiers and try to pull him from the water, but he had to follow her. The ice-cold waves lapped around his hips, then his shoulders, and then they rose above his head. He was sinking, drifting deeper and deeper, closer and closer, on his way to meet Katara in the Underworld. 


	6. In Want of a Wife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6: Banished from the Fire Nation, Prince Zuko finds refuge in the free cities of the Earth Kingdom. His supporters are ready to install him as the new Fire Lord, and they're ready for him to find a wife. To be continued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! The title is taken from the the first line of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

His face is hot. He’s trying not to think about the sweat collecting on his palms, but obsessing over it is just making it worse. In his five years of banishment, waiting here for the right time, begging kings for their support, this has to be his most humiliating experience yet.

“Prince Zuko, may I introduce Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, the Avatar’s waterbending master?”

“An honor, Master Katara.”

“Likewise, Prince Zuko.”

“Well, I’ll leave you two to mingle.” Inwardly, Zuko groans. His uncle has been embarrassing him all night, reveling in bouncing Zuko from girl to girl, reminding him how important this decision is.

The girl in front of him has skin darker than anyone else in the room, and her lovely dark hair is pinned back, adorned with blue pearls. They match her eyes. He’s never seen more enchanting eyes. “You’re the only girl from the Southern Water Tribe.”

“I noticed.”

“Did you travel all this way for dinner?”

“I was in the area, actually. The Avatar has been mastering his earthbending.”

Of course. He’s heard they all travel together, a band of teenagers out to save the world. But the world loves them. The world loves him, which is even more surprising.

“Yes, I met his earthbending teacher already. Lady Bei Fong.”

“Oh, is she one of your candidates?”

“No, just a dinner guest.”

She smiles at him. “You and I both know there’s more to this than dinner. Should we talk about that, or did you expect me to flirt with you like all the other girls?”

“I don’t expect anything, to be honest. I’ve never exactly been given one night to find a wife. I never even gave it thought until my advisors insisted.”

Apparently a wife strengthens his claim, as it symbolizes stability and puts him one step closer to an heir than his sister. His supporters plan to install him as the next Fire Lord once Sozin’s comet comes, a hauntingly close date, so he must be married as soon as possible.

“I don’t envy you. All the small talk, all that pressure, and you have _no_ way of knowing who’s lying to you and who isn’t.”

“It’s all very stressful.”

“Can I make it easier?” she says. “Pick me.”

Her boldness catches him off guard. “You’re the first one to speak so plainly.”

She smiles. “You’ll learn I’m very outspoken.”

“An outspoken waterbending master. What else? Why should I pick you?”

“My father isn’t rich,” she admits. “He won’t be able to fund the colonial mercenaries the Earth Kings are so keen on, but he will send every Southern Water Tribe warrior to your cause. I also don’t know your customs, and I’m not trained to be a proper lady. I have a temper, and if you ask my brother, I’m bossy.”

He’s amused, but he’s lying if he says she doesn’t intrigue him. “You’re making quite a case for yourself,” he remarks.

“But I’ll _learn_ ,” Katara swears to him confidently, with a determination in her eyes he’s only ever seen in his own before. “I will learn your country inside and out. I will learn your people and let them teach me what it is they need in a ruler, and I will be that for them. I have the opportunity to change the world as your wife. When Aang defeats your father and you take your throne back, I want to be there with you.”

“Why is it so important to you?”

Her hand fiddles with the pendant at her throat, a carved blue stone. He remembers then everything the Fire Nation has taken from the Southern Water Tribe. She is the last surviving bender of her homeland. “I want this war to end, and I want to work everyday to make sure it never happens again.”

He nods in sympathy. “It’s gone on too long, hasn’t it?”

”For 100 years. A whole century of war.”

“We’ll end it.”

Her eyes widen. He doesn’t mean it as a definitive proposal, though it may sound like one to her; he isn’t quite sure how women’s minds work yet. Still, he’s proud of himself for not awkwardly fumbling through a clarification. He’s already made a fool of himself in front of some of these other ladies tonight.

He catches his uncle approaching out of the corner of his good eye. His time with her is almost up. “So outspoken, master bender, temper, passionate, self-sacrificing, _beautiful_ …anything else I should know?”

He smiles to himself as the faintest blush dusts her cheeks. “If you think I’m beautiful now, wait until you see me in _red_.”

His mouth goes dry, and before he knows it, he’s whisked away after offering nothing more than a respectful bow. As he meets the next girl, the daughter of an Earth Kingdom nobleman, the exact kind of girl the Earth Kings want the future Fire Lord to marry, he wishes he had kissed her hand instead.

“So have you made a decision?” his uncle goads. “Or were there too many fine ladies to narrow down to one?”

“No, I chose.”

“Well, who is it, Prince Zuko? Who will be the one you return to your throne with?”

The Earth Kings won’t be happy. His uncle might even advise him to choose a girl from a more affluent background, someone who’s family can lend them resources in abundance, but his mind is made up. When he imagines returning home and reclaiming his throne, she’s the one he sees beside him.

“Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.”


	7. Spirits Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7: Soulmates; While celebrating the end of the Hundred Years' War, the Spirits realize something isn't quite right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a difficult prompt for me because I do not enjoy writing Soulmate AUs. I LOVE reading them, but I have so much trouble writing them. That's where this little piece came from. Hope you enjoy!

“Hey, um, are you guys seeing this?” asked Zhi Nu to her fellow spirits.

“We’re a little busy celebrating the end of the mortals’ Hundred Years’ War,” replied Raijin.

“Yeah, yeah…Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai…but look _closer_.”

She directed Raijin and Yue to the scene on the balcony in Ba Sing Se. There stood Avatar Aang with his lips pressed against his waterbending teacher’s.

“ _Oh_.”

“Yeah. Was that in the design?”

Yue shook her head. “I may be new here, but I don’t think so.”

“Someone call Raava over here!”

“Hey, Raava, come check this out! Is Katara supposed to be kissing Avatar Aang?”

Raava, the Spirit of Peace and Light, peered closer and subsequently spit out his tea. “No. Oh no. Where did it go wrong?”

“So it’s not just us right?”

“Absolutely not. Her soul is bonded to Fire Lord Zuko’s soul. She’s supposed to be the Fire Lady of the Golden Age.”

“So what should we do? Do you want me to strike Aang with lightning?” asked Raijin.

“Absolutely not!”

“You can’t just kill the Avatar!”

“Why not? He reincarnates. A quick bolt, and Katara’s free.”

“ _Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Look closer!_ ” Yue commanded.

The other three peered back at the mortal world, where Fire Lord Zuko had joined Aang and Katara on the balcony…with his arm around _another girl._

“Zhi Nu, you’re the Spirit of Love. Explain how things got this out of hand.”

“They are still young, Raava. They will still find each other. Zuko and Katara will be the leaders of the Golden Age, as they have been in all of their incarnations.”

“Looks to me like they need a push,” mentioned Raijin, who already had his hands primed to shoot lightning.

“No lightning! No deaths! Do you hear me, Raijin?”

The Spirit of Storms pouted. “Yes, Raava.”

“You are right, though. They do need a push. Yue, what do you think?”

“W-what?” stammered Yue, who had lost track of the conversation ever since Sokka and Suki walked out to the balcony. He had hurt himself in battle, it looked like, and she was helping him stand. She smiled sadly. They seemed good for each other.

“What do you propose we do about this?”

“I think we should wait, like Zhi Nu said. They’re soulmates, aren’t they? Won’t they find each other?”

“We need them to find each other _yesterday_ ,” stressed Raijin. “The future of the world depends on it. It is their destiny.”

“Okay, hear me out. We’ll give them six mortal months. If nothing’s done, we’ll call Avatar Aang to the Spirit World. We’ll tell him he needs to take some kind of “enlightenment journey”. Meanwhile, we call Iroh. We tell him that his nephew needs to come to Ba Sing Se ASAP.”

“How are we going to get Katara to Ba Sing Se?”

“I’m. Working. On. It.” Raava huffed. “Okay, new plan-”

“Wait, go back to the old plan! Zuko and Katara are both going to be in Ba Sing Se at the same time next year for a peace council!” remembered Yue.

“ _Perfect_! Okay, so we’ll call Aang to the Spirit World right around then.”

“If he’s even still with Katara at that point, and I mean…look at them. That’s not gonna last,” mentioned Zhi Nu. Then she shouted at Katara, “ _HE’S ON YOUR LEFT! HUNKY FIRE LORD ON YOUR LEFT, GIRLFRIEND! SPIRITS, WHAT IS AANG, TWO FEET TALL?_ Uh, she can’t hear me.”

“Do we all agree on the plan?”

“Can I create inclement weather, so they’re stuck together for an immeasurable amount of time at this peace council? You know, for bonding purposes.”

“They’re soulmates. How much more _bonded_ does it get?”

“Just please, Raava, can I?”

Raava sighed. “ _Only_ if the two of them aren’t making progress on their own.”

All four studied the teenagers on the balcony one last time. Zuko and Mai. Aang and Katara. It was painful for them, but they had to be patient. Raava recalled another time their past incarnations were reluctant to find each other, until their fateful meeting on top of a mountain. From there, it was only a matter of time before they were carving tunnels together and professing their love. Peace came from them then, and peace would come from them now. Unfortunately, there was only so much intervention allowed by the spirits.

But one year from today, if they hadn’t figured it out for themselves, Zuko and Katara were going to get the push of their _lives_.


	8. All Along Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 10: Fake Dating; Zuko and Katara go to prom together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The All Along miniseries continues. Hope you enjoy! I absolutely love writing these little love-struck Katara pieces. I've noticed a lot of my submissions feature love-struck Zuko, so this is a fun way to shake things up a little bit.

So she’s spying again. Sokka hates it when she spies, but she feels it’s her right to know what’s going on with her brother–and by extension, her brother’s best friend. She’s hiding in the stairwell while Sokka and said best friend talk and play video games on the living room sofa. This is the same best friend who nothing happened with, despite playing _onstage lovers_ and engaging in the most romantic and magical moments of her life. 

Now the play’s something of the past, and their kiss is far behind them. Now _Mai_ exists. The tall, gloomy girl started showing up right before the new school year. Her dad knows his dad or something like that. She clung to Zuko immediately and didn’t let go. They’ve been dating for most of the year. Thankfully, this year, she has Toph and Aang with her, so she has no trouble eating her lunches far away from Zuko and Mai. 

But the reason she’s spying right now is because Zuko and Mai are done… _right before their Senior prom_. Sure, Sokka will be absolutely irate if he catches her in the stairwell, but she needs the details. 

“That sucks that the tickets are nonrefundable,” she hears Sokka say.

“I can’t believe she made me buy them, and now she says she’s done with me, found this other guy, and made him buy tickets, too.”

“Fucking psycho. You should go with someone else too.” 

Zuko scoffs. “Prom’s next week. Everybody in our class has a date.” 

“Take Katara.”

 _Take Katara_ , the two sweetest words her brother’s ever said. She holds her breath and awaits Zuko’s response. 

“Does she have plans? It’s a Friday night.”

“Please, she’d rather go to a prom.”

“Well, if you don’t mind.”

“Why would I mind?”

“I don’t know. Some guys are weird about their sisters. I’m weird about Azula sometimes.”

“Katara’s fine. Besides, nothing to worry about. It’s not like you’re interested in her.” 

Only Sokka can simultaneously lift her up and then push her face-first onto cement. 

Zuko doesn’t reply directly to his comment. Instead, he says, “Okay, I’ll ask her.”

Sokka’s shrill yell pierces through the house. “Katara, come here!”

She quickly darts up the steps–thank the Spirits they’re carpeted– to open and slam her bedroom door shut, so the boys think she’s been upstairs in her room the whole time. “What is it, Sokka?”

“Zuko wants to ask you something.”

She turns her attention to Zuko and watches his eyes glance down to the floor. He says nothing, and she continues to stare at him, pretending like she doesn’t know what he’s about to ask her. “Yeah, Zuko?”

“Do you want to go to prom with me next Friday? I have an extra ticket.”

As cooly as possible, she says, “Sure.”

“Great. I’ll, uh, pick you up around 5:30? That way there’s time to go to dinner with Sokka and Suki.”

Dinner, dancing…she is absolutely _going_ to get him to dance with her, even if he’s determined not to make this a date. Friends dance right?

“Do you have a tux yet?”

“Yeah.”

“What color?”

“Ugh, fuck. It matches Mai’s dress. She wanted to coordinate.”

“That’s okay. You have other ones, right? For your dad’s corporate parties and things.”

“Yeah, but they’re all just black.” 

She shrugs. “Then I’ll get a black dress. It’s no big deal. Prom’s supposed to be fun, Zuko. Don’t stress.”

 _Don’t stress_ , she wishes she could take her own advice. Online shopping is out of the question now that the dance is a week away, so she spends all of her after-school time searching for the perfect gown. 

After looking nonstop for three days, she knows it immediately when she sees it in the middle of the rack at some boutique in the mall. It’s a spaghetti-strapped dress with a plunging neckline in the perfect shade of black. It has high slits, and the whole skirt has a sheer top layer with the most beautiful floral design. It’s perfect on the hanger, and it’s perfect on her. It’s the sexiest thing she’s ever worn, and she feels amazing in it. She feels like the heroine of her own story, and this is the part the heroine gets the boy she’s loved forever. 

When Zuko sees her, he tells her she looks nice. It’s such a simple compliment, but she can tell he’s thinking more when his eyes keep darting to her over dinner. He pays, by the way. In her head she thinks this is _totally_ a date. 

But then they get to the dance, and she notices that he’s looking a lot at Mai too. She looks gorgeous in a satin red gown, hanging onto her date Kei Lo. She tries not to let her jealousy show. She tries not to think about how much money she spent on the dress, the shoes, her nails, her hair. She even bought lingerie for the first time ever. Zuko’s looking over at Mai again. She’s so stupid. 

“If you want to make her jealous, we should dance,” she tells him, trying to hide the hurt. 

“It’s okay. I don’t want to make her jealous.”

“I don’t know. She’s looking at you like she’s missing you.” 

“You think so?”

“Yeah.” 

“Do you want to dance?” he asks. 

She doesn’t trust herself to speak. She just nods. He takes her hand and guides her out to the ballroom of the five-star hotel hosting his class’s senior prom. She rests her other hand on his shoulder. His other finds her waist. She holds him closely while they slow dance to some Ed Sheeran song Sokka hates. 

“I can see why she’s jealous. You look amazing,” he tells her.

“Thanks. You look great too.” 

“I can’t believe we’ve known each other since elementary school.”

“Yeah, when I used to follow you and Sokka around and beg you to play with me.” 

“I always did.”

Yes, he always did. He’d stay in the shallow end of the pool with her when she was too afraid to go in the deep end, even though Sokka told him to leave her. He showed her to her classes on her first day in middle school, even though Sokka told him to let her figure it out herself. He helped her with her homework and told her which teachers to avoid in high school. 

He kissed her. Before they had to kiss onstage in front of everyone, when every rehearsal kiss had been on the cheek, he pulled her aside and asked if she’d ever kissed anyone. When she said no, and she admitted she was really nervous, he kissed her then right backstage, and her heart was so full she thought it would burst. 

But none of that matters now as she leans closer and presses her cheek to his, holding him as tightly as possible while they dance. This is her goodbye. This is her last chance to be close to him before she releases him for good. She decides she won’t be in love with him after tonight. He’s still looking at Mai. 

“Hey,” she whispers, catching his attention. “This’ll make her really jealous.” 

She kisses him slowly, long enough to make sure Mai can see. She makes his lips chase hers. She wants him left panting. She wants him to long for her the way she’s longed for him all these years. His eyes are closed when she pulls away. As far as goodbye kisses go, it’s pretty great. They keep dancing, and Katara does everything she can to appear unaffected. But inside she’s heartbroken, and she vows to herself that Zuko has broken her heart for the last time.


	9. Underneath Silk Sheets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 11: Dragon; A short scene from an AU where Ozai is the instigator of the war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is on the shorter side, but adding more to it didn't seem right. Hope you enjoy!

“Did you know the dragons turned against my father?”

Silk sheets kiss her skin. His voice whispers across the bed. She turns slowly, wondering if she imagined his voice. Her husband never speaks to her in bed.

“No, I didn’t.”

“The dragons were the masters of our element. They taught us to use fire. They were all over the Fire Nation when I was a child.”

She doesn’t know if the thought frightens her, dragons all over this place she’s forced to live. She’s come to associate fire with evil now.

“Did you have one?” she wonders.

“Not my own. They rarely belonged to people aside from those who bonded with the Fire Lords or other master benders. But I could always look up at the sky and see them. The dragon used to be the sigil of the Fire Lord.”

But the dragon sigil is no more, she knows. Just like the Fire Lord is now called the Phoenix King. The airbenders are gone, waterbenders are slaves, and more earthbenders are sent off to prisons every day. Just when she thought it was too much, when the hands of slavers struck her skin, the Phoenix King married his only son to _her_. Their marriage served two purposes: to humiliate the crown prince and show favor to Zuko’s younger sister in the line of succession. What a curious nation that puts brother against sister.

“Now he wears the phoenix,” she feels the need to say, to remind Prince Zuko that nothing is the way it was when they were children.

The silence hangs between them, and Katara uses it as an opportunity to study Zuko’s features. In the moonlight streaming through, the master of her bending, she pays particular attention to the rigid planes of the scar covering his left eye. It is the mark of shame he received from his father at thirteen years old. She thinks a waterbending slave for a bride can’t be more painful than a burn like that. She reaches out to touch it. In all the months they’ve been married, all the touches they’ve been forced to share, she’s never touched his scar.

He recoils. She pulls her hand away, but then he exhales and draws her back. Her fingers trace the roughness of his skin, the bare patch where an eyebrow will never grow again, back to his burned ear, and finally down to the softness of his unmarred cheek.

“I hate your father.” It’s not a whisper, but she feels it so strongly she doesn’t worry if anyone will hear her.

“Do you hate _me_?”

Even in the dark, the gold of his eyes shine.

“No.”

“I hate myself for not stopping him,” he admits, and her eyes widen. “One day, I’m going to stop him.”

The black snow flashes in her mind, the sign of the approaching Fire Nation ships. Her parents, her brother, her home, the chains, the palace, her wedding day, the humiliation, her husband’s scar…

“And I’ll wear the dragon again,” he vows. “I’ll bring them back.”

She believes him. At that moment, under his gaze, she pushes closer to him beneath their silk sheets and vows to do everything she can to help him.


	10. All Along Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 12: Balance; Zuko helps Katara with Chemistry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continued from Day 1 and Day 10. Hope you enjoy!

She doesn’t like him anymore. He’s gone off to college with Sokka. She doesn’t care, never spares him a thought. He’s not even a blip on her brain’s radar. Out of sight, out of mind…until she’s near Winter Break of her Junior year and confesses to Sokka she’s failing chemistry. **  
**

“Ask Zuko to tutor you. He aced chemistry.”

Her heart stutters at her traitor brother’s suggestion. “I’m sure Zuko’s busy. Isn’t it close to finals?”

“Yeah, but he’s the perfect student, does things way in advance. I’m sure he’d do it for you. Do you want me to ask him?”

“How would he even tutor me?”

“I’ll have him call you.” 

Talking to Zuko on the phone, not over text, but hearing his _voice_ …that’s a little too intimate for her comfort level. Still, her latest chemistry test haunts her from her binder. She could pursue tutoring options through the school, but she already knows no one would get through to her the way Zuko would. Maybe this can be the perfect test. If she can talk on the phone with Zuko every night until she understands chemistry and not rekindle her feelings for him, then she’s officially over him. 

_Not_ that she isn’t already. 

“Yeah. Tell him to give me a call if he has time,” she says as coolly as possible. 

He must have time. He calls her that night. 

“Hey, Katara. It’s been a while.”

“I’m failing chemistry,” she blurts out.

He laughs, _laughs_ , like a college scholarship isn’t on the line here. _Jerk_. “Yeah, Sokka told me. What is it you aren’t getting?”

She huffs. “Okay, so I was doing really well. I memorized the periodic table and all the properties, prefixes and stuff, and then we got into balancing equations. I just can’t do it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, okay. Not all of us are _geniuses_ , Zuko.” 

“Don’t stress about it. I’ll help you. Send me a picture of your homework.”

She does. The unbalanced equations, which _in theory_ represent chemicals, travel immediately to the boy who lives every day blissfully unaware that he ever broke her heart. 

“I don’t understand why they’re not acceptable the way they are. Balancing them doesn’t change the elements that are already there.”

“Uh, actually it does.”

“Whatever.”

So he starts explaining it all to her, how the point of it comes from the law of conservation of mass. Matter can’t be created or destroyed, only converted. That’s why the equations need balance. He has her disregard the elements at first. “Every time you see an element, I want you to go back to your periodic table and substitute the value of the mass for the chemical symbol. I think if you start thinking about it in math terms, it’ll be easier for you. Let’s do the first one together, okay?”

On the left side of the paper, the reactants side, she tallies up the atomic masses of the elements. 1 element of carbon, four elements of hydrogen, two elements of oxygen: she calculates a total atomic mass of 48. Then she does the same for the products on the other side of the paper: 62. They don’t match up. 

“Oh.”

“Do you see why they need to be balanced now? If you leave them the way they are…”

“Then matter was created. And matter can’t be created,” she realizes. 

“Yeah, exactly.” 

“I don’t know why I never got that before.” She’s angry about it actually, though the triumph of finally understanding this concept is making her smile. She knew it from the beginning. Zuko is always able to get through to her. 

“It’s hard.”

“Not for you.” 

“It was hard for me too. It doesn’t come naturally to me, Katara.”

“Are you sure? You’re good at everything.” 

“No, I’m not.” 

“Come on, name one thing you’re not good at.” 

“I can name a lot of things. I can’t cook. I can’t tell you how many times I forget my left from my right. I’m terrible at public speaking, I was shaking the whole way through that awful play-”

“Please, you were the best Blue Spirit ever.” 

“Well, I’m glad you think so. Now, other things I’m bad at. It took me forever to master Budo. I’m bad with people, girls in particular.” 

She can’t help but laugh. “No, you’re not,” she protests. 

“Yes, I am. I don’t have any luck with girls.”

“What about Mai?”

“She dumped me for some other guy.”

“And then she wanted to get back with you. Remember?” _She_ remembers. She doesn’t care what Zuko says. He’s good with girls. He’s really good at kissing them, she thinks to herself. 

“Yeah, I remember. Now balance the rest of your equations.”

“Fine. Do you want me to text you if I have any questions?” 

“If that’s what you want to do. I thought we could stay on the phone until you finish, in case that’s easier.” 

Sometimes, she wonders if he puts thought into playing with her emotions like this. “Yeah, we can do that.” 

It becomes their routine overnight. Whenever Katara has chemistry homework, she sends him a picture and they stay on the phone until she finishes it. Soon, they start talking about more than balancing chemical equations.

They talk about movies, sports, Zuko’s midterms, Katara’s friends. They talk for hours. It makes Katara realize how much she’s missed him since prom last year when she stubbornly decided she wouldn’t give him any more of her time. He made her heart hurt, but talking to him on the phone, hearing his laugh, having him listen to her; his friendship makes her heart full. 

“So I guess I’ll see you in a few days. Sokka and I are coming back for Winter Break.” 

“I can’t wait.” 

“Me either.” 

“Good luck on your Lit final tomorrow. You’ll do great.” 

“Thanks. Good luck on your big Chemistry exam.” 

“Thanks for helping me so much. You really didn’t have to do that.” 

“I wanted to.” There’s a brief pause. “I know you won’t have any homework tomorrow night since you’ll be on break, but, um, call me if you want. You can tell me about your exam.” 

“Yeah, I will. Goodnight, Zuko.”

“Goodnight, Katara.” 


	11. The Blue Mountains Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 13: Folktale; AU based on the Irish folktale, the Blue Mountains

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a big book of Irish folklore, fairytales, etc, and this is one of the stories in it. I changed some of the details, but I hope you enjoy this and maybe even check out the original folktale. It will be continued (and finished) tomorrow!

Jet’s stomach rumbled. “We should have thought this through more,” he said. **  
**

“A few days in the desert won’t kill you,” muttered Zuko as he attempted to fan himself from the harsh sun. “We couldn’t stay in the army any longer.”

“What’s the point of deserting if we’re just going to die out here.” 

“We aren’t going to die!” 

“Whatever. I never even saw this desert on any maps. If I had, I would have found a way around it. I still wish I’d stolen more provisions.”

“Jet?” 

“What?”

Zuko sneered at him. “Stop complaining.” 

Zuko wished he had never left with Jet. He would have had much better odds if he deserted on his own. It had been Jet that was on guard duty when he planned to leave, though. The original plan was to bribe him or knock him out if that didn’t work, but the self-proclaimed “freedom fighter” had wanted to join him. Now he was holding him back. 

“I hate sleeping on sand,” Jet groaned when it came time to camp for the night. 

_Get lost_ , thought Zuko as his eyelids grew heavy. “You’re taking first watch.” 

“I know. I hate first watch.” 

Zuko sighed heavily. “Just wake me when you get tired.”

The next morning when he woke up and stretched his body out in front of him, he peered over and realized his wish had come true. Jet was gone! There was absolutely no trace that he had ever been with him in the first place. While Zuko thought it was odd and kept his senses heightened for a missing rebel, he did not let it otherwise affect him. 

Then night came, and Zuko was afraid to sleep. There was no one to keep watch but him, so he stayed up as long as he could, and right when he thought he wouldn’t be able to hold off sleep any longer, a fuzzy object appeared in the distance. As Zuko focused on the object under the bright light of the full moon, he saw that it was a castle. 

“It’s a hallucination,” he said to himself, but it was a far greater castle than anything he could have ever dreamed up. Even under the moonlight, the richness of it glistened, and he felt himself stand up and walk towards it, like a moth to a flame. 

With strength he didn’t know he had, he arrived at the steps of the castle, and as he looked upon the doorway, he saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen standing there. She smiled at him. 

“You must be hungry and thirsty,” she said. “Will you come in? I have food and water if you’ll take it.” 

“Yes, please,” he answered, realizing how deprived he had actually become wandering through the desert. 

She opened the doors to the castle and invited him inside. As soon as he entered, he realized the entire hall was filled to the brim with sleeping men. “What is this?” 

“They have come here to eat, drink, and sleep,” the woman replied. “Now come this way.” 

He followed her to separate room, with a table for dining in the center. Above the table hung a glittering diamond chandelier. Emeralds were strewn into the room’s curtains. Rubies lined every chair. He pulled one of the ruby chairs out from the table and sat in it. As he processed the sheer opulence of the room, he noticed the woman set a bowl of soup and a cup of water in front of him, but he was still so impressed that he forgot his hunger. 

“Won’t you have something?” she implored him, breaking him of his reverie. 

His senses returned. He pushed away what she had given him. “I won’t take anything from you until I know who you are and how you’re here.” 

An awe-stuck gleam brightened her lovely blue eyes, and her lips curved into a breathtaking smile. “Did you know in sixteen years _no one_ has ever asked about me?”

“Then they were fools.” 

“My name is Katara. What’s yours?”

“Zuko.”

“Why are you wandering through the desert?” 

“I was with the army, but I defected after I realized I didn’t believe in the war.”

“There’s a war going on?”

His face creased. “Yeah, where have you been?”

Katara sighed sadly. “Here. Always here. I’m cursed. My father is the king of a great land, and he cursed me when I was just a baby. I have to stay here until a man breaks the curse. _You_ are the first man I’ve ever thought could.” 

He remembered the men sleeping in the hall. “Did the others try?” 

“They never got the chance. They ate and drank without asking about me, and they’re stuck sleeping here until the curse breaks.”

His heart sunk to know Katara had been shut up in this castle for sixteen years. He also thought about the dozens of men, sleeping their lives away. Zuko knew something about being trapped. “What do I have to do to break the curse?”

“If I tell you, you have to do it,” she warned. 

He waited a minute, thinking it over in his head. Katara added, “My father said the one who frees me will be the one to marry me. He’ll receive one third of my father’s kingdom as soon as I’m free and all of it after he dies.”

He had his mind made up before she continued. “Go ahead and tell me.”

“There’s a room at the far end of the east wing. If I can get a man to stay there for two hours, the hours of ten to midnight, every night for three nights, I will be free.”

“That sounds easy enough.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

She took him to the room. It looked comfortable enough. The ten o’ clock hour was approaching. When the time came to shut Zuko in the room, she took his hand. “Two hours,” she reminded him. 

“Yes, two hours.” 

In an action that brought a blush to his face, she kissed his cheek. “Thank you.” 

When the heavy door slammed closed behind Katara, Zuko blew out his candles and went to lay in the bed at the corner of the room. He rested his head against the silk pillow, but he was unable to sleep on account of a loud hammering noise on the door. The first noise was soon accompanied by others, pounding and knocking. 

“Open up,” the voices clamored. 

“No,” said Zuko, but the group succeeded in opening the door and ripped Zuko from the bed. They threw him to the floor and delivered blows all over his body. Some kicked him, others bit, some struck him with hard objects, all while Zuko howled in pain and struggled to free himself from the assault. Even in the army, he had never felt so close to death. 

It felt like a century of agony passed before the castle’s grand clock struck midnight, and the group of invisible faces disbanded and left him alone. The princess rushed in immediately and crouched over his beaten body. 

“If you think I’m going through that for another two nights, you’re mistaken.”

“Oh, Zuko, I’m so sorry.” She held her hands out over her body. “I have the power to heal. I can take all the pain away.” Her hands glowed blue, as blue as her eyes, right before him as she tended to the wounds on his body. Immediately, he felt relief, and when she finished her work a few minutes later, Zuko looked down to find his body perfectly healed, his pain nothing but a memory.

She cradled his head in her arms and pleaded with him, “Please, stay for two more nights. Tomorrow won’t be as bad. Please, I have never been this close to my freedom.”

Her healing hands, sweet voice, and enchanting touch pulled him back.

“Two more nights,” he agreed.

He spent the next day touring the castle with her, and when night came, he laid down on the bed to rest. Then ten o’ clock struck, and this time three times as many assailants barged into the room. Zuko thought he would surely be dead by midnight. He felt his ribs pierce his lungs, bones breaking in his body, his head hammering against the solid floor. 

“Stop!” He cried out, but the blows continued. “Stop!” 

By the end of the two hours, he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness. When he woke, he saw Katara’s eyes looking down on him. He was certainly surprised. He didn’t think he would live to see her again. 

“Your hands bring the dead back to life,” he told her.

“No, I can’t reverse death, but I can revive even the faintest spark of life.” Her fingers combed through his hair. “Just one more night,” she reminded him. 

He shook his head. “I won’t survive it.” 

“Yes, you will. Please, we’re almost out of here.” She took him in her arms and held his body to hers. “Please, please.” 

“I don’t think so, Princess.” 

“Don’t you want to inherit a great land and all the riches within it?”

“I have to admit, I came from my own great land. That one never appealed to me much either.” 

She sobbed into his shoulder. “I can be a good wife to you. I can love you with all of my might. I’m already so close to loving you. Please. One more night.” 

He had never liked to see a woman cry. Now that his wounds had been healed without an echo of the pain he’d suffered, the night ahead of him didn’t seem so bad. One more night of suffering in exchange for love and power. It didn’t seem like such a bad deal the longer he stared into the watery blue eyes of the princess he was beginning to love too. 

“One more night.”


	12. The Blue Mountains Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 14: Dao Swords; Continued from yesterday's entry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second (and final part) to this little AU. Hope you enjoy! I'll be posting another story adaptation for Day 20's prompt Fairytale.

The third night came, and it was all the agony of the first two nights and more. He tried to think of Katara, of how he came closer to breaking the curse after every second. He prayed for unconsciousness. He prayed to wake up and run away with his freed princess. Once he heard the familiar ringing in his ears and felt the call of sleep throbbing through his head, he answered it readily. 

He woke to Katara whispering sweet praises in his ear. “You did it. You broke the curse.”

“I did?”

“Yes,” she answered tearfully. “I’m free, Zuko. Thank you. Thank you so much.” She kissed him tenderly. It was the loveliest kiss he’d ever known. He held Katara in his arms, relieved that it was finally over, excited to start his life with her, but all too soon she pulled away from. 

“I have to go for a few days,” she told him. “My father’s calling me back, but when I return, it will be as a proper princess to come get you and bring you home with me.”

“You mean we’ll be apart?”

“Just for a little while,” she promised. “We’ll be married in no time.”

He leaned forward to kiss her again, to seal her words with his lips, but in a heartbeat, she disappeared. In her place appeared a blue staff engraved with words he didn’t understand. Immediately, however, he knew what to do with it. He took the staff in his hand and leaped to his feet, letting them guide him to the hall where the sleeping men lay. One by one, he took the staff and touched each of the men with it, spurring them to wake. Eventually, he found Jet sleeping, and woke him.

Zuko did his best to explain about Katara and why the men had been trapped in the castle. 

“I’ve been asleep for days?”

“Yes, Jet. Now go. Get out of the castle.” 

“I can’t just wander the desert by myself. Come with me.”

Zuko refused. “I’m waiting for the Princess.” 

“So let me get this straight. Beautiful princess says if you take a beating for three nights, her curse will break, and you’ll get to marry her and inherit her father’s kingdom. Then the beautiful princess _disappears_ when you break the curse, and you really think she’s going to come back?”

“Get out of the castle,” he repeated, though Jet’s words did breathe life into the doubts he’d tried to suppress. What if Katara had used him? 

After all the men had left the castle, Zuko became overwhelmed with the events of the night and went to sleep. The next morning, he was surprised to find a bald boy with blue tattoos all over his body sitting at his feet and watching him sleep. 

Zuko shrieked in surprise. “Where did you come from?” he shouted. 

The boy smiled. “Oh, wow, you’re angry. I’m Aang.” 

“How did you get here?” 

Aang shrugged. “Katara sent me.” 

“Katara? Is she here?”

“No, she’s not here. She sent me ahead to get you ready. She says you have to be out on the castle steps by noon when she gets here. Now that her curse is broken, she can’t enter the castle again, so it’s very important that you’re outside,” he emphasized. 

“She’ll be here at noon? What time is it now?” 

“A little after ten. You have time. I made breakfast if you’re interested.” 

Once Aang mentioned breakfast, Zuko realized how hungry he was. “Sure, thanks. That sounds great.” 

“Cool, I can’t wait for you to try this.” A bowl was pushed in front of him, and it smelled sweet like honey. It was some kind of grain, mashed and cooked and sweetened. One spoonful wasn’t enough to sate him; he devoured the whole bowl of it within minutes. 

“What _was_ that?” he asked. 

“Just an old recipe. Good, right?”

“Really good.” Then Zuko’s eyes fluttered. He fought it at first, but the temptation to sleep became too strong. He slumped to the floor. When his eyes opened, the sun was gone from the sky, and Aang was watching him again. Zuko jerked up. 

“Katara!” he called, remembering.

“She’s already gone. She was pretty upset when you weren’t outside. She said you have one more chance at noon tomorrow. Then the castle’s going to disappear, and you’ll never be allowed to find her again, or something like that.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?” he growled, feeling the effects of grogginess and despair. 

“I tried. You wouldn’t wake up.” 

“I can’t risk that happening again. I won’t sleep again until I see her.” 

“Suit yourself.” 

Zuko watched the moon through the castle’s windows. It rose higher and higher in the sky, and the stars shone along with it. Soon enough, they disappeared completely from view as the world kept on turning and the sun reappeared to light the sky. _Only a few more hours_ , and then he would be reunited with Katara. Only a few more hours to the beginning of their life together. 

“Have you had anything to eat or drink?” asked Aang.

“No, I don’t want anything until I see Katara.” 

“But your body needs something. You wouldn’t want to pass out and miss your chance with Katara. I’ll bring you some water at least.” 

Zuko conceded to the urging of this odd boy and drank the cup of water he gave him. Then the same feeling as the day before washed over him, and he realized gravely, “You’re drugging me.” 

“I’m sorry,” said Aang. “You’re not supposed to be with Katara.” 

He felt nothing but rage as the world went black. 

The moon was shining down on him. Cool sand bristled against his cheek. He already knew he’d missed Katara. He sat up and saw that the castle had disappeared from sight completely. There was nothing around him but the bleak desert. Then he spotted the glimmering swords by his side. Two dao swords had been left beside him, still in their sheaths. He removed the first carefully and beheld the most beautiful weapon he had ever seen. He knew they were a gift from Katara. He knew his absence had broken her heart. It had broken his heart too. Then he spied the characters engraved in the sword’s pommel. These were not like the ones on the blue staff. These he could read. And they said, _Come and find me in the Blue Mountains._

He laughed, taking heart again. He would find Katara. He just had to find these Blue Mountains first. He strapped the swords to his back and wandered through the desert, away from where the war was waging on, surviving on nothing but the milk of desert plants. He sliced through the prickly layer with his swords and grasped the plant carefully to drink from. The milk was rich enough to keep him going. 

On the outermost boundary of the desert, right before the beginning of the river lands, he stumbled upon a single home with a lantern lit inside. He knocked on the door, hoping whoever lived there could lead him in the right direction. 

“Well, hello, there. Name’s Dock.”

“Zuko. Nice to meet you. Would you by chance know anything about the Blue Mountains?”

Dock’s face lit up. “Well, son, you’ve come to the right place. I have a book that contains the history of the whole world. I can look through it tonight, and if there’s any mention of the Blue Mountains, I can find it.” 

Zuko exhaled in relief, marveling at his luck. “Thank you.”

Dock offered him some fish for dinner. Zuko had hoped the fish would be _cooked_ when he accepted, but he soon learned that hunger drove a man to eat things he wouldn’t eat before, though the raw fish left an odd taste in his mouth. 

“Okay, so I looked through the book. There’s not a word about the Blue Mountains.”

Zuko slammed his head against Dock’s table. “Not one word?”

“Nope. But I’ll tell you what, if such a place exists, my brother will know. He is the only one in the world smarter than I am.”

“I thought you said your book was a complete history of the world.”

“It is, but my brother has the revised edition. He’ll know.”

“Well, how far away is he from here?”

“Nine hundred miles,” Dock answered, as if nine hundred miles equated to a stone’s throw from the kitchen.

“ _Nine hundred miles_?” 

“Don’t stress it, son. One blow of my whistle, and you’ll be at my brother’s in an instant. Just watch.”

The whistle rang through the air, and Zuko was sitting at another kitchen table in front of a man who looked absolutely identical to Dock. “Dock?”

“Dock? Do I look like Dock to you?” 

“Uh, yes.”

“Well, Dock’s my brother. I’m Xu. So what can I do for you?”

“I’m trying to find the Blue Mountains. Dock told me if anyone knew about them, it was you.” 

“Well you’re in luck. You see, I’ve got a book, and it just so happens that this book-“

“-contains a complete history of the world. Dock told me.”

“The revised edition,” amended Xu. 

“Right. The revised edition.” 

“I’ll just go grab it and take a look through the index. I bet Dock didn’t look through the index. He’s known to do that–it’s why he has to keep directing people to me. What use is it to have a great book of knowledge and then ignore the index?”

“How terrible,” offered Zuko drily. 

“Let’s see. B, Bindu City, Blue Bay, Blue Island, Blue Lagoon, yep, _Blue Mountains!_ ”

Zuko jumped to his feet. “Where?” He demanded, feeling as hopeful as when he first noticed the writing on his dao sword. 

Xu’s face contorted as he scanned the page. “It doesn’t say.” 

“What do you mean it doesn’t say?” demanded Zuko.

“It doesn’t say where the Blue Mountains are, only that the princess of the kingdom was enchanted by a terrible curse.”

“I already know all about that. _I_ broke the curse. I’m supposed to be with the princess, but some bald kid drugged me and she disappeared.” 

“That’s quite a sequence of events.”

“I. Know.” he groaned. “I wish she’d left me a map instead.” 

“The princess left you something?” 

Zuko removed the dao swords from their place on his back. “These,” he said. “They tell me to find her in the Blue Mountains.” 

Xu inspected the fine steel of the first sword, noting the engraving of the pommel. “These are finely forged,” he said as he examined them. “You were probably too distracted by that to notice these characters on the blade.”

Zuko’s pulse quickened. “Show me.” 

“Here.” Xu held the first dao up to the light and showed Zuko characters written in the same language as the ones on the staff that he had not been able to read. The second dao had different characters in the same spot on the blade as the first. 

“Can you read them?” 

“Yes, but I can’t translate it.” 

“That doesn’t make any sense.” 

Xu rolled his eyes. “This is an old, old language. As old as the spirits. I know the basic sounds the characters make, but that doesn’t mean I can derive meaning from them.”

“Then how come the blade is written in the ancient language, and the pommel is written in today’s?” 

Xu smiled, revealing yellowed teeth. “I would bet whatever’s written on this blade is magic, and that’s why it doesn’t translate.” The old man touched his finger to the indecipherable characters. “Hmm. I wonder.” 

Then Xu’s mouth began to form the words:

_Bǎ tā dài dào dàhǎi yǔ tiānkōng xiāngyù dì dìfāng. Bǎ tā dài dào chuàngzuò zhě zài wǒmen zhōngjiān xíngzǒu dì dìfāng. Dài tā qù lán shān shānmài._

Suddenly Zuko was very sleepy. _Again._

He woke coughing, expelling the burning seawater from his lungs. Around him he heard the crashing waves of the sea. His whole body felt damp, though the sun above warmed him. When he looked around, he noticed mountains on the other side of the beach, covered in grasses of the most beautiful shade of blue. They were as blue as Katara’s eyes. _I’m here_ , he realized. _I made it_. When he stood up to his feet, he saw for the first time a castle on the highest point of one of the mountains. Even from his distance, he knew the castle was identical to the one he’d found Katara in so long ago. 

Though he was soaked to the bone, he trudged forward, light as a feather. Zuko walked miles and miles up the path on the side of the mountain. He was the talk of the village, apparently. Everyone wanted to know who he was and how he came here. It would seem the Blue Mountains didn’t receive much in the way of foot traffic. No one was ever just passing through.

“Do you think it’s _him_?” he heard one child say to another. 

“Who?” 

“You know, the man Princess Katara is going to marry.” 

“I don’t think it’s him.” 

Zuko almost laughed. 

When he arrived at the entrance of the castle, Zuko requested an audience with Princess Katara.

“The Princess is busy today. Come back tomorrow,” the guards told him. 

Zuko did not move. “What is she doing?”

“She’s preparing for her wedding.” 

“I’m the _groom_!” Zuko shouted at them. “Find her and tell her that I’m here. I made it to the Blue Mountains. Go tell her I found her!” 

One hurried off while the other kept Zuko outside the entrance. He even tried to send Zuko away again, but he would not budge. He was not moving his feet from their place until he saw Katara. 

And then he saw her. She looked even more beautiful in daylight. Brown hair spilled down her back in waves. Blue eyes shined at him, glistening with happy tears. Perfect lips formed his name in disbelief. She threw herself into his arms, and he was all too happy to catch her. 

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?” she asked. 

“As long as I’ve been looking.” 

They had waited long enough. They married the very next day.


	13. All Along Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 15: Scars; Zuko reflects.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first in the All Along series from Zuko's perspective. It's a short little piece that can be read on its own. Hope you enjoy!

Burns hurt; he knows better than most. He’s broken bones, he’s scraped his skin, but the burn over his left eye remains the most painful experience of his life. **  
**

He was thirteen, home alone with his eleven-year-old sister who had decided she wanted to take a shot at cooking. “Zuko!” she shrieked when the whole pan went up in flames. Zuko didn’t know not to put water on a grease fire. Now he knows.

Sokka didn’t mention it when it happened. He kept on treating him the same. He never stared at it. He just said he was happy to have his best friend out of the hospital. 

He noticed Katara staring one day. It made him angry, even though she was only eleven, the same age as his sister. She didn’t know any better. Her staring wasn’t as bad as how some of the kids reacted to him at school. 

Then they got older, and he caught her staring every once in a while, and it still made him angry. 

“It’s only been five years. Shouldn’t she know by now there’s a scar?” He muttered angrily.

Suki laughed at him. “She’s not staring at your scar.”

“Yes, she is.”

“She’s staring at _you_ ,” Suki told him. “She has a crush on you, but don’t say anything. And don’t tell Sokka. He doesn’t know.”

Before he could ask anymore questions, Sokka returned, and they dropped the subject forever.

He tells himself Suki was lying to make him feel better. Katara was definitely staring at his scar.

Though sometimes- when she smiles at him, when she talks to him on the phone, when she laughs at the things he says, when she hugs him as soon as he crosses her front door after a long semester away - he still wonders. 

_Could she…_

He looks for any indication that she treats him differently than Sokka or her friend Aang. He pays attention to where she seats herself at meals ( _she’s right across from me)._ He _wants_ to catch her staring. He wants to know if there remains any truth to Suki’s hurried declaration on Sokka’s couch right before they graduated. 

Now it’s different again. With every break, every visit, every smile, he asks himself s new question: 

_Could I?_


	14. Intimate Situations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 16: Intimacy; Toph experiences a new stage of life. Intimate situations ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've wanted to write something like this for so long! It takes place at the Ember Island House, between The Southern Raiders and The Ember Island Players. I feel like at this point, Zuko and Katara have a strong friendship that could easily develop into something more. Hope you enjoy!

As soon as Aang saw the spot on Toph’s pants, Katara should’ve known she was in for it. Already, under the heat of the blazing sun, and without any time to swim, Katara was done with the day. Aang was frustrated with training. Zuko was frustrated with teaching. Katara had tried her best to mediate, and Toph had been grumpy all day. Katara attributed it to the heat, but then… **  
**

“Toph, are you okay! You’re _bleeding_!”

“What?” screeched Toph, who Katara never knew could reach a pitch so high. “Where?”

“Like on the back of your legs.” 

“Aang,” Katara began, not quite sure how to break it to them, catching Zuko’s nervous eye from across the room. Of course Sokka and Suki picked the perfect time to go on an adventure. “It’s fine. Toph, come with me.” 

“I’m bleeding?”

“Just come with me. We need to talk. Aang, stay with Zuko. Zuko’s going to talk to you.”

“No, I’m not,” protested the firebender. 

Katara smiled cruelly. “I have Toph. _You_ get Aang.” 

“I’m not telling him about… _that_.”

“Well, I’m not. Come on, Toph.” 

She sat Toph down in the closest bathroom in the Ember Island house. “Did your mom ever tell you about your…monthly bleeding?”

“My _what_?”

“I’m gonna take that as a no.” Katara sighed, thinking about the best way to explain it in medical terms. If she was going to finish her training to be a healer, she would have to get used to these kinds of intimate situations. This was just practice. She tried to imagine Toph was in need of healing. It helped a little. 

“Okay, so what this means is that you can now have a baby.”

“Excuse me? I’m twelve.”

“I know! I’m not saying have one now, just that you _could_ , in theory. This is your body preparing for womanhood. Every month your body bleeds as a symptom of it.”

“For how long?” Toph wondered. 

“It doesn’t stop for a while.”

“Well, I don’t like it.”

Katara smiled in sympathy. “Nobody does. You just kind of deal.”

Color rose to Toph’s cheeks. “So wait, now everyone knows I’m bleeding…from there.” 

“It’s okay. It happens to every girl. It’s natural. It happened to me when I was your age.”

“Is this why my stomach’s been hurting?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly why.”

“How long does it last?”

Katara shrugged. “Mine’s typically a week. Every girl’s different.” 

“Well, how come no one ever says anything about _you_ bleeding?” she demanded furiously. 

“I sew special cloth into my undergarments. I’ll start sewing them in yours so we don’t have to have a situation like this again.”

“Ugh, fine.” Toph hunched her arms over her knees, sinking into herself. “This is ridiculous.” 

“It’s natural,” Katara told her as gently as she could. 

“It sucks.”

“Why don’t you rest for a little bit? Leave your laundry outside your room, and I’ll take care of it later. I’m gonna go check on the guys.” She remembered when she first started bleeding, and everything was explained to her. It was all a shock, and she had only wanted to be left alone. 

She stumbled upon a curious Avatar and an increasingly flustered prince. It was too good to interrupt. 

“So Suki bleeds every month?” 

“Yes, every girl from a certain age bleeds like that every month. It’s not that hard a concept to grasp.” 

“Katara?”

“ _Every girl_ ,” Zuko repeated. “It used to symbolize the time a girl could marry in the Ancient days, but we don’t often marry that young anymore.” 

“And they bleed because it means they can have babies?” 

“Yes.”

“So Katara, Suki, and Toph can have babies _right now_.” 

“Well, not by themselves.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Nothing. Nevermind. I’m done. Talk dismissed. Go do fire squats or something.”

“But wait, Zuko–”

“No! No more questions!”

Zuko huffed and stomped away from Aang. It was a small mercy Aang didn’t pursue him. She followed Zuko inside to the little downstairs kitchen area and openly laughed at him as he poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher. 

“This is your fault,” he told her after a sip. 

Katara smiled. “I think you handled it very well… with all the _yelling_.”

“You’re the one who left it up to me. That’s what he gets. Now _please_ keep him away from me for the rest of the day. Send him to Sokka if he has any more questions.”

“Will do, though I feel like that situation has the potential to be even worse.” Katara plucked the pitcher from the space in front of him and bent some water into a glass for herself. She took a long sip, hoping the water would cool the heat of her cheeks. When it didn’t work, she fanned herself with one of her hands. 

“Hot?” Zuko asked.

“Miserably.” 

“We might be due for a swim.”

Katara’s face lit up. “But you never take breaks. You’re always _train, train, train, I’m a brooding prince, fire squats_.” 

“Someone has to make up for _it’s okay, Aang. You’re doing great. You’re the best Avatar in the whole world_.” 

“I don’t sound like that.”

“Sure you don’t. How’s Toph?” 

“Disturbed.”

“Understandably. I tried to tell Aang not to mention anything to her, but the message may have gotten lost.” 

“It’s possible. That happens with Aang.” 

“Yeah, so fair warning: he may ask you about your ability to have a baby.” 

“Great,” she muttered drily. “If he does, I’ll sic him back on you.” 

His eyes narrowed, but his lips curled up in a small smile. “You _wouldn’t_.” 

She hid a smirk behind the rim of her glass. “We’ll see.” 

In the back of her mind, her Gran Gran was telling her to change the subject, to leave the room, to forget Zuko wasn’t wearing a shirt right now. _Don’t go to the beach with him_ , her Gran Gran was saying. _You can’t be alone with him. Intimate situations between unmarried men and women are terribly improper._

“So, swim?” 

“Yeah,” she agreed, a bit breathlessly. 

But, Spirits, were they fun.


	15. Meeting Aunt Azula

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 17: Eclipse; On the day of the eclipse, Katara takes the children to meet their Aunt Azula.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is written in the same universe as my first ever Zutara fic, For the Fire Nation. This entry comes from the line "They'll learn their father keeps their mad aunt in a cell underneath the palace," but it can be read on its own as well.

Izumi doesn’t like it when the sun disappears behind the moon, and takes her bending with it. **  
**

“Look, I can still bend,” her sister Yuna taunts, creating a small wave in their father’s turtleduck pond. “Cheer up, Izumi. It’s only for a little while.”

“Yeah, but imagine if you couldn’t bend. Would you like it?” 

Yuna crosses her arms. “No,” she admits. 

“So stop it! Where’s Mom anyways? She’s the one who told us to come out here.” 

As soon as she asks, their mother appears around the corner, holding their little brother’s hand. 

“Come on, girls. We don’t have much time.”

“Where are we going?” Izumi asks. 

“We’re going to meet your aunt,” her mom answers. Her mom is not smiling. She keeps walking, clutching little Kyroh’s hand, and Yuna follows her, but Izumi stops suddenly. 

“I don’t want to, Mom.” 

“What’s wrong, my love?”

“I don’t want to see her. I’ve heard things about her. I heard she gave Dad that scar on his stomach.” 

Their mom sighs and reaches for her with her free hand. “Yes, she did, but I promise you, she isn’t dangerous right now. She’s in a prison for her crimes. I visit her often, and so does your father, but we have held off on bringing the three of you by for so long. Your father and I thought this eclipse would be the perfect opportunity for you to meet her.”

“Because she can’t bend?”

“Yes, because she can’t bend.” 

“But if she could, would she hurt us?” 

Mom shakes her head and squeezes her hand just a little tighter. “Like I would let her. Now come on, let’s go.” 

Izumi wishes their dad was with them too, but Dad has to be in a separate location during the eclipse. Apparently during the last eclipse there was an invasion on the Fire Nation. Apparently their mom had something to do with it. 

It’s all still so confusing to Izumi. She wishes she could be Yuna’s age again. Yuna doesn’t understand anything the way Izumi does. Izumi’s seen her father poisoned; she’s heard her mother scream on the birthing bed. She’s seen her mom remove the Fire Lady’s crown from her head to bow before the spirits in the Fire Temple and cry out for guidance. Izumi knows her grandfather gave her father the scar on his face. She knows a lot of people in the Fire Nation don’t love her mother. 

She knows Aunt Azula is crazy. 

“Katara, it’s been too long.” 

“Azula, you look well.” 

This woman, their _aunt_ , laughs and spits in their mother’s face. Their mother doesn’t flinch. Izumi does. Yuna’s eyes widen. Kyroh hides behind Mom’s legs. Izumi’s eyes drift to her aunt’s face and then quickly dart away; she almost gasps when she realizes _I look like her._

“I don’t _feel_ well. My bending’s gone!” 

“I know. It’s an eclipse.” 

“Make it stop.”

“It’ll be over in a few minutes, just like the last one.” 

“Is someone coming to overthrow our esteemed Fire Lord this time, too?” she asks with an awful sneer of a smile. “I’d like that.” 

“I’m sure you would. Now, I wanted you to have the chance to meet your nieces and nephew.” Their mom places a gentle hand on Izumi’s shoulder. “Go ahead. Introduce yourself.” 

“I’m Izumi.” 

“I’m Yuna.” 

“Go on. Tell her your name.”

“Kyroh.” 

Aunt Azula’s eyes linger on Kyroh. “That’s how Zuko looked.” 

“Uncle tells us he looks more like him every day.” 

“He will bend fire. He has the golden eyes.” 

“Izumi bends fire, and her eyes are blue like mine.” 

Aunt Azula’s attention snaps to her. “How old are you?” 

“Ten.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am!” Izumi argues back. She knows exactly how old she is. 

“She is, Azula,” Mom confirms gently. 

“Have I been here that long?”

“Yes.” 

Then she asks Yuna, “Do you firebend?”

“No, I waterbend. Like Mom.”

“Shame.” 

Izumi’s blood boils. “Mom defeated you with waterbending,” she reminds her. That’s another detail she knows.

Aunt Azula laughs again. “You have your father’s temper. You’ll have to show me some of your firebending forms sometime. I doubt your father has hours and hours to spend training with you.” 

He doesn’t, but a prisoner of war doesn’t seem like a great option for a teacher. 

“I was a firebending prodigy, you know. Ask your father. He could never keep up with me.” 

“My father is the best firebender I’ve ever seen.”

“You’ve never seen me,” boasts Aunt Azula from her prison cell.

The sun’s reappearing–Izumi can feel it. She feels her source of strength returning to her veins, and she realizes the second her aunt can feel it too. It signifies their time to leave. Somewhere Dad feels it, along with every other firebender in the nation. As they leave the prison, Izumi looks back for a second to see Aunt Azula bend a small flame in the palm of her hand. 

She doesn’t like this woman who burned her father and chased her mother around the world, but she can relate to that second of joy when the call of your element returns to you and you feel whole again. Only in this short second are they the same. 


	16. All Along Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 18: Caught Undressed; Zuko helps Katara with some gaps in her memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another installment in the All Along miniseries! I had so much fun with this one!

“Katara, this is our roommate, Jet. Jet, my little sister, Katara. She’s a first-year. Just moved into her dorm.” **  
**

“Cool shirt,” Jet says.

Katara looks down at the shirt she’s wearing. “Oh, thanks. I don’t even remember where I got this from. I’ve never even been to any of their concerts.” 

“So not a fan of the Airbenders then?” this third roommate asks, chewing on the cigarette hanging out of his mouth. 

For some reason, Katara feels like she’s said the wrong thing. “Um, well, I am. I’ve just never been to any of their concerts.” 

Jet smirks. “I’m sure they’re playing somewhere around here soon. I’ll have to take you.” 

“Hold on a second,” interjects Sokka. “You’ve known her for two minutes. You can’t just ask her out.”

Jet shrugs. “She’s cute. Looks nothing like you..”

Katara giggles. “Yeah, let me know if they’re playing. I’d love to see them.” 

Sokka rolls his eyes exaggeratedly. “Come on, Katara, we’re going to get smoothies.” 

“But, Sokka-” 

“ _Smoothies!_ ” her brother exclaims, latching onto her arm and dragging her out of the apartment, far away from Jet. 

“Katara, you do _not_ want to get tangled up in that,” her brother warns, though the words go in one ear and out the other. “I have to listen to his phone calls. Believe me, he’s a mess.”

“You’re the one living with him, not me!” she exclaims defensively, crossing her arms over her chest, directly over the shirt that started it all. She’s still trying to remember where it came from. 

“Only because Suki and I couldn’t afford it by ourselves.”

“Well, why didn’t you ask Zuko?” 

“We did, but he lives with his uncle.” 

That’s right. He moved into the apartment above his uncle’s tea shop right before she graduated high school. He had worked there all through the summer, never coming home once. 

“Hey, do you want to go to the tea shop instead of the smoothie place? Zuko’s working right now.” 

Katara smiles. “Yeah! I haven’t seen him in ages. Is it close by?”

“A few blocks away from campus. Not far at all.” So she walks alongside her brother with her tiny purse strewn across her shoulder. It’s the perfect day for a walk. She thinks about how when she sees Zuko, she’s going to rub in his face how he has to work while she enjoys the nice weather. No matter how much time passes between their visits, they always fall right back into the comfortable friendship they worked so hard on.

“Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon,” calls Zuko from behind the counter when the two of them walk in. He doesn’t look up, though. 

“Nice apron,” Katara says back. 

Zuko’s head snaps up comically and his face finally relaxes into a full blown smile. “Hey, guys. Uncle, Sokka’s here.” 

Zuko’s Uncle Iroh appears through the doorway from the front counter to the kitchen, wearing an apron similar to Zuko’s. “Sokka, it has been too long.” 

“I know, Uncle Iroh. This is my sister, Katara. She just moved into her dorm today.” 

“How exciting! It is very nice to meet you, Katara. Zuko, take your break. I’ll take over the counter. Anything you and your friends want is on the house.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Sokka protests, though Katara knows this new apartment is putting a strain on Sokka’s extra spending. 

“Nonsense. Can Zuko get the two of you anything before he takes his break?”

“I’ll take a chai latte please,” says Katara sweetly.

“And two of those tea cakes for me, man.”

“Two tea cakes and one chai latte coming right up.”

“Alright. I’m going to go to the bathroom real quick. Katara,” he stares at her meaningfully, “I will know if you so much as _lick_ one of those cakes, okay?”

“I’m not going to disturb your food. Just go to the bathroom,” she huffs. When Sokka disappears, she stalks over to the counter to pester Zuko while he works. 

“Just so you know, it’s really nice outside.”

“It looks nice out.”

“When do you get off?” 

“Not till closing.”

She pouts. “Bummer.” 

He hands her a finished chai latte. When he holds it out to her, he looks at her like he’s noticing her for the first time. 

“You still have the shirt,” he says. 

She looks down at the mystery concert tee tucked into her jean cutoffs. “Do you know where this came from? It just appeared in my closet one day.”

“It’s mine.”

“It’s yours?” 

“Yeah,” he answers, somewhat nervously, fiddling with the strings of his apron. 

“How did _I_ end up with it?” 

“Three words: drunk as fuck.” 

Her face flushes. There’s only one time she’s been that drunk - the one and only Kyoshi Sorority Party Suki dragged her to just after she turned 18. 

“Oh.” 

He laughs. “You don’t remember it at all?”

“That night’s a blur,” she admits guiltily. 

“Well some Chin Fraternity guy spilled beer all over your shirt, and you were so drunk you took your shirt off.”

“Oh, my God!” Her cheeks are _burning_. “I can’t believe I did that.”

“Don’t worry, I doubt anyone remembers.”

“Ugh, does Sokka know?” 

“He punched the guy who spilled the beer on you and the first guy who wolf whistled.”

“This is so humiliating.”

“Katara, believe me, there have been worse college parties.”

She still feels so embarrassed. When Sokka comes back to collect his tea cakes, and the three of them sit down at one of the corner tables, she tells her brother, “So I figured out where this shirt came from. Zuko gave it to me on the night I apparently made a fool of myself at the Kyoshi party.”

“Oh, yeah. I guess that is the one.” He claps Zuko on the back. “This is a good friend right here. He covered you up with the shirt off his back.”

“Yeah, thanks for helping me out. I’m so mad I did that.” 

“Don’t worry about it. Seriously,” he assures her. 

“Maybe Jet should ask you out, Zuko.”

“Excuse me?”

“Jet hit on my little sister here as soon as she walked in the door, all because of this Airbenders tee shirt. Can you believe the nerve of that guy?” 

“I don’t think it’s the shirt, Sokka. It’s more of how she looks in the shirt.” 

Katara blushes once again, much more pleasantly this time, as Sokka gags on his tea cake. “Okay, conversation over.” 

“I don’t know. I kinda like it. Zuko, tell me more about how I look in this shirt,” she teases. 

Now it’s Zuko’s turn to blush. “Your brother said conversation over.” 

She rolls her eyes playfully. “Sokka doesn’t make the rules.”

“Just drink your latte, Katara. I slaved over it for you.” 

She takes a sip. “It tastes like you could’ve slaved a little longer.” 

“ _Woooow_!” Sokka exclaims. “You know, I missed this. We all need to hang out more. Us three, Suki, even Toph and Aang,” he tells them. “Not Jet.” 

“Jet’s not too bad,” Katara protests. 

“Yes, he is.” 

“Do you know him, Zuko?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Would you let your little sister date him?” 

“Azula, sure. I’d tell him good luck, actually.” Then he takes a sip of his jasmine tea, looks her over head to toe, and adds, “But you’re not Azula.”

It’s so offensive to her that these two think they can control who she does and doesn’t date. Once upon a time, Zuko could have controlled it. Once upon a time, he had been the only one she daydreamed about. But the way these two are acting now make her want to date Jet more. 

“If I want to go to an Airbenders concert with him, I’m going to go to one!” she asserts.

“Do they even have any shows coming up?”

“Jet said they did.” 

“Oh, _Jet said_ ,” Zuko repeats mockingly. “Tell you what, if there’s a concert, and you still want to go, I’ll take you. Leave the cigarette chewing asshole out of it.” 

“Maybe I want the cigarette chewing asshole.”

“How long have you known him again?”

“Grand total of two minutes,” answers Sokka. “I’m gonna go ask Iroh for another one of these tea cakes. These are too good.” He stands up and walks over to the line forming around the front counter. 

Katara knows she looks angry, and she can tell by the twinge of Zuko’s jaw, that he’s not too happy either. “I don’t want to be mad at you. I just want you to know that you don’t get a say in who I date.” 

“I know that.” 

“I get enough of it from Sokka. You’re not my big brother, even though we grew up together.”

“I know that too.” 

“Good.” 

“But I _am_ your friend,” he reminds her. “Forgive me for looking out for my friend.” 

The statement strikes a chord in her and she looks down at the tee shirt given to her in a vulnerable moment that could have turned into a very bad situation. Some people don’t exactly hesitate to take advantage of drunk girls walking around without their shirts on. Zuko had looked out for her then, and he is looking out for her now, in his own twisted way. Still, it relieves her of her sour mood. 

“I’m gonna hold you to what you said. You’re taking me to the next Airbenders concert.” 

He smiles. “Okay.” 

“And I’m keeping the shirt.” 

“Fine by me.”


	17. The Thing About Reincarnation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 19: Avatara; In a world without the war, Fire Lord Iroh's nephew teaches Avatar Katara to firebend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! I almost didn't get to post this, but I officially did with thirty-five minutes to spare hehe. I'm sorry it's another short scene, but I like it short and sweet the way it is. Tomorrow's is a little longer. I'll be replying to reviews very soon. Thank you so much for all of them! You guys make me smile!

“You’re not my great-grandfather are you?”

She’s holding a pulsing flame in the palm or her hand, but squashes it immediately as her face turns. “What kind of question is that?”

“A valid one, in my opinion. Now fix your stance.”

She rolls her eyes but opens her feet a little wider than hip-width and bends her knees. She holds her arms defensively in front of her chest, remembering her breath the way the Fire Prince taught her. 

“That’s better,” he says. He mirrors her stance and breathes deeply. When he exhales, it’s fire. He’s showed her this breath before. One day she’ll master it, but she’s just starting to learn her firebending. She has already mastered water and earth.

“You remind me of a dragon.” 

“They were the first firebenders,” he tells her in his _Sifu Zuko_ voice. 

“Yeah, I know. You already told me. Your great-grandfather had his own dragon.” 

He smiles fondly. “Fang. He has his own tapestry in the palace. I’ll show you sometime.” 

“To answer your question, I’m not your great-grandfather. That’s not how that works. I’m connected to him, but I’m _not_ him.”

He purses his lips and nods. “I was just wondering because I, uh, well I didn’t want it to be weird.”

“Why would it be weird?”

When Prince Zuko lowers his gaze to the ground, the sun reflects off the gold of his crown. “Because I wanted to ask if you would have dinner with me.” 

“We always have dinner together,” she reminds him. As the Avatar, and the student of Prince Zuko, she is an honored guest in the palace.

“I meant privately.” 

“ _Oh_.” 

“And I also don’t want it to be weird if you say no. We can totally forget about me asking you, and I can still be your teacher, or someone else can be your teacher.” 

She smiles and shakes her head at this foolish Fire Prince. “Zuko, I would love to have dinner with you. And for you to stay my firebending teacher.”

His eyes leap up from the ground and focus instead on her. His smile sends a thrill through her stomach. “Really?”

“Really.” 


	18. Aang the Faithful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 20: Fairytale; Inspired by the fairytale Ferdinand the Faithful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! This one is the longest of the month. The whole story started to get away from me, but I enjoyed writing it so much. Please let me know if you have any questions about the details of this universe. I'll be more than happy to answer any. This is centered around Aang, but Zuko and Katara are at the heart of it. Hope you enjoy!

Once upon a time, a young couple heard the cry of a baby coming from the direction of the woods. Immediately, they went to see and were shocked to find a newborn baby wrapped in silks and left all alone. “We must take him in,” said the mother, but the couple was very poor indeed and had nothing to offer this child but the love in their hearts. **  
**

“We will find him a godfather,” declared the man, for godfathers blessed their godsons with valuable gifts. He went in search of one, but all godfathers refused to help a family so poor. Finally, when the man was so frustrated with his search, he was approached by a beggar.

“Oh,” said the beggar. “You are poor, and I am poor. I will be the boy’s godfather, but I have nothing to offer him at this time. Go home and tell his mother that she is to take him to the Southern Air Temple.”

The father obeyed. When they all arrived at the Southern Air Temple together, the beggar was already there, sipping a cup of tea. He gave the child the name Aang the Faithful. 

“Now go home,” the beggar said. “I have nothing for the child, and you should give me nothing.” Then he gave a key to the child’s mother and told her to take care of it until Aang was fourteen years old and then he was to go on the heath where there was a palace which the key would fit. He said anything in the palace would belong to the boy. 

Now when Aang was seven years old, he noticed all the other boys his age receiving gifts from their godfathers. They began boasting to each other about their gifts, and Aang was displeased that he didn’t have anything to boast about. 

“Did I get nothing at all from my godfather?” he asked his mother.

“You did,” she replied. “You got a key. Here it is. If there is a palace standing on the heath, just go and open it.” Aang left as fast as he could to check the heath, but no palace was there.

Another seven years passed, and Aang turned fourteen. Again, he went to the heath with the key in his hand, and there stood the palace. When he turned the key in the lock, and looked inside, there was nothing within but a giant flying sky bison. 

“Appa!” he cried out in joy, naming the creature instantly. Then he mounted Appa and flew him back to his mother and father. 

“Now, I have a flying bison, and I will travel,” he told his parents. He set out from the Southern Air Temple, and as he was on his way, a boy his age, also traveling by sky bison, approached him. 

“Where are you going?” called the boy.

Aang shrugged. “Oh, to the next place.”

“What’s your name?”

“Aang the Faithful.”

“Wow, we almost have the same name. I’m Aang the Unfaithful.” Bonding over this immediately, the two traveled together and landed at an inn close by.

There was in the inn a young girl named On Ji, who had a bright face and spoke to them sweetly. She grew smitten with Aang the Faithful, and she asked him where he was going. 

“I’m just traveling around,” he told her. 

“You could stay here,” she suggested. “I work for Fire Lord Ozai. He’s looking for an outrider. I could put in a good word for you.” 

“Really?” Aang the Faithful beamed. “You’d do that?”

On Ji blushed. “Sure.” 

The next day On Ji went straight to Fire Lord Ozai, and told him that she knew of an excellent servant for him. The Fire Lord accepted her offer, and called Aang the Faithful to him. The Fire Lord made Aang an outrider, just as On Ji promised. 

When Aang the Unfaithful learned this, he said to On Ji, “Why would you help him and not me?”

“Don’t worry. I can help you too,” she said sweetly. Inside, she was thinking, _I must be a friend to this boy and keep him close because he can’t be trusted._ There was something about the way he was also watching Aang the Faithful that made her uneasy. She went to the Fire Lord and offered Aang the Unfaithful as his servant, and the Fire Lord willingly accepted. 

Now when the Fire Lord met his lower lords in the morning, he lamented as he always did and said, “Oh, if only I had my love with me.” 

Aang the Unfaithful was always hostile to Aang the Faithful, so one day, he said, “You have the outrider. Send him to get her, and if he doesn’t do it, burn him.” Fire Lord Ozai seemed more than pleased with the offer and accepted it instantly. 

“Very well. Aang the Faithful, I have no idea where she is, but you are charged with bringing her to me. If you do not, you will die.” 

Aang wrung his palms and bounced nervously on the balls of her feet. “Um, do you have any hints, Fire Lord Ozai? What’s she look like? What’s her name?” 

“All I can give you is her name. Her name is Katara.” 

“Katara. Great.” 

Aang the Faithful went to the stable to Appa and complained, “I’m so upset, Appa!”

Then someone behind him cried, “Aang the Faithful, why are you so sad?”

Aang leaped around, but there was no one else in the stable with him. “Oh, Appa, the Fire Lord gave me these impossible orders, and I’m definitely going to die.” 

Then the same voice cried again, “Aang the Faithful, why are you so sad?”

“Appa, can you speak?” Aang asked, thinking he was on the verge of going mad. “I have no idea where I’m supposed to go, but I need to find this girl, Katara. Fire Lord Ozai loves her or something. Can you tell me how I’m supposed to _begin_ a quest like that?”

Appa smiled, as much as a flying bison could smile. “I have a few. Katara, you say?”

“Yeah.” 

“Did the Fire Lord give you any other names?”

“No.” 

Appa frowned. “None at all?”

“No, why would he? He only wants Katara. She’s his love.” 

“I think it’s time we visit your godfather,” Appa told him. Aang, however, had never met his godfather. The only proof he ever had one was the key that had led him to the palace where he first found Appa. He didn’t even know the name of the beggar who had taken him on as a godson. But if Aang knew anything, he knew not to disobey a talking flying bison. 

So Aang the Faithful returned to the Southern Air Temple where he had been named. When he landed in the home he had grown up in, the couple who raised him was gone. Sitting on the steps of his home, however, was an unfamiliar man dressed in gray robes with his hair pulled back into a topknot similar to Fire Lord Ozai. Aang approached him with caution. 

“What is your name, boy?” the man asked. 

“Aang the Faithful.” 

The man smiled. “Aang the Faithful, I have been waiting for you. I am the one who gave you that name.”

Aang beamed. “You’re my godfather? You gave me Appa? Thank you so much! He’s the best flying bison in the world. Did you know he talks?”

His godfather laughed. “I did. I gave him to you so you could travel the world, and traveled you have. I hear you have earned yourself a post as one of Ozai’s outriders.” 

“I have.” 

“What do you think about Ozai?” 

Aang paused at the question. He didn’t think anything particularly bad about Fire Lord Ozai, except that he was facing death if he didn’t succeed. Still, he felt like he didn’t have the answer his godfather was expecting. All he really knew was that the Fire Lord was the most powerful man in the world. 

“I must serve him,” Aang replied. 

“Or he’ll kill you?” 

“Yes.” 

His godfather paused heavily. “Do you know how many people he’s killed?” Aang refused to answer. “Do you know how long he has reigned?” 

“No.” 

“Hundreds of years, Aang the Faithful.”

“But that’s impossible!” the young man protested. “No one can live that long.” 

“I will brew us some tea, and then we will continue this conversation. I’m afraid it is a long story, but it will give you the answers you seek.”

“Wait, do you know where I can find Katara?” Aang wondered. 

His godfather smiled. “Let me make us some tea,” he repeated to Aang’s frustration. He didn’t have time for tea. He didn’t have time for subterfuge. He needed to find Katara before Fire Lord Ozai burned him to a crisp. 

As this stranger navigated the kitchen of his old home, Aang watched him brew the tea. It was a long process, and the stranger started it over twice, claiming the brew had to be perfect. It all annoyed Aang even more. 

“What did Ozai tell you about Katara?” 

“He said she’s his love, and he wants to find her.” 

“She isn’t,” this man claimed. “She is the love of his son.” 

“But Fire Lord Ozai doesn’t have a son,” Aang reminded him. It was true. The only member of the royal family was Ozai himself. He never married, never had children, and come to think of it, Aang couldn’t remember anything about the Fire Lord’s parents. No one ever mentioned them. It was as if no one ever ruled the world except Fire Lord Ozai. 

“My brother contends with dark spirits.” 

Aang spit out his tea. “Your _brother_?” he exclaimed. 

“Yes, Aang the Faithful. My brother. Centuries ago, I was the Fire Lord. Then my brother usurped my throne and killed my only son. He waged a terrible war and invaded the rest of the world. No one could depose him, and everyone suffered because of him. This Southern Air Temple was never within the boundaries of the Fire Nation before. The world used to be full of diversity in people and elements, but with the war, everything was consumed by fire.

“Years later, my nephew allied himself with the Princess of the Southern Water Tribe, the Princess Katara.” 

Aang’s ears perked up. His impatience got the better of him, and he asked again, “Do you know where she is?”

“Katara aided my nephew, Prince Zuko, in defeating his father. But my brother is underhanded. From his prison cell, he conjured the spirits of darkness to kill Zuko and Katara and restore himself to the throne, but the spirits of light intervened before all the damage could be done. Ozai became the Fire Lord again, and the spirits of darkness granted him immortality in his reign. The spirits of light were able to preserve Katara and hide her away, while my nephew remains trapped in the spirit world under their protection. Zuko and Katara are the only ones who can defeat my brother once again. He is invincible to everyone else. That is why he wants you to find Katara. He’s sent outrider after outrider after her for hundreds of years, so he can finally kill her, but no one has found her. No one knows who she is. Zuko, Katara, and anyone before Ozai has been wiped from living memory. I have been waiting for you, Aang the Faithful. It is your destiny to find her, not so my brother can kill her, but so she can kill my brother and bring my nephew back to the physical world. It is your destiny to restore balance.”

Aang did the only thing that made sense in the moment. He ran.

As he tightened his grip on Appa’s reigns, he lamented, “Why me? Why is it my destiny?”

Appa sighed and with a movement so forceful, he jerked Aang’s grip away from the reigns. “I think there are some places you need to see,” his bison said. 

The first place he took Aang was the Western Air Temple, or what was left of it. It was meant to be modeled identically to the Southern Air Temple, as all four were, but the gardens here were fields of ash. Holy places for meditation had been burned, and every piece of knowledge was gone. The most horrific of all was the pile of bones stacked from floor to ceiling of the temple. The sight was enough to make Aang fall to his knees and curse Ozai’s name. 

When he returned to Appa, it was with steel in his veins. 

“It’s time for us to find Katara.”

So far, all he knew about Katara was her connection to Zuko and her status as the Princess of the Southern Water Tribe. He decided to start at the South Pole, but unfortunately when he arrived, he found nothing but ice and penguins. The whole pole was abandoned, as eerily as the Western Air Temple had been. 

“Don’t lose hope,” Appa said to him. 

“I know what we’ll do! We’ll check out the Northern Water Tribe too!”

It took a month to arrive at the Northern Water Tribe. All the while, Aang the Faithful was looking worriedly over his shoulder, wondering if today would be the day Ozai’s assassins finally caught up to him. He always managed to stay ahead, though, and when he landed at the North Pole, he was devastated not to be allowed entry. The entire North Pole was walled off from outsiders, and the guards refused to open the gates of solid ice. 

“Please, I’ve had a very long journey.”

“We do not open the gates for anyone.” 

“But I’m looking for someone. Maybe you know her actually, or maybe you’ve heard of her. Princess Katara? Ring any bells? She’s from the Southern Water Tribe, but I thought maybe she was up here instead.” 

That was when the guards took Aang prisoner and left Appa outside the city. 

“I don’t mean her any harm! Seriously! I’m trying to save the world from the forces of evil! My godfather said it was my destiny!” 

He was taken before the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe that night and forced to kneel on the ground before him. “This is a total misunderstanding.”

At least the Chief wouldn’t burn him as a means of execution. He really didn’t want to be burned. Then the Chief smiled. 

“She said you were coming.” 

Aang exhaled in relief. “She’s here?”

“For centuries, the Northern Water Tribe as thwarted attacks from Fire Lord Ozai. We are the last holdout in the world. We’ve been protecting Princess Katara this whole time.”

“Can’t she leave? Can’t she defeat Ozai if no one knows who she is?” 

“No,” the Chief explained. “The spirits of light and darkness both keep her locked away. But you are touched by the spirits of light. You are the only one who can tip the balance enough in our favor and bring her out of this place.”

“Where is she?” 

The Chief directed for the guards to untie Aang and allow him to walk freely. He followed closely behind the Chief as they walked towards the center of the great capital city, where guards defended a tunnel. When they passed, the guards opened the door for them, and suddenly Aang was overwhelmed by how warm it was inside. 

“She is as close to _him_ as she can be,” the Chief said, and they walked for what felt like miles, deeper and deeper into a beautiful garden. Finally, they found a pond, and a stunning woman sitting beside it, running her fingers through the water. 

“Princess Katara, he’s here.” 

The Princess turned towards them and regarded him with skepticism at first. Then her face broke into a lovely, genuine smile. “It _is_ you!” she cried and jumped up to hug him, this perfect stranger. “You have no idea how long we’ve been waiting for you.” 

“Sorry I took so long,” he said. “I guess it took me a really long time to be born.” 

“It feels like nothing now.”

“Are you ready to get out of here?” 

“Yes.” Then she turned to look over her shoulder tentatively. “J-just let me say goodbye first.” She walked back towards the pond, where Aang the Faithful noticed a single koi fish with red and black scales swimming through the water. 

“Hey,” she said gently. “Just a little while longer now. I’ll see you soon.” 

The Chief whispered to him, “When Prince Zuko was trapped in the Spirit World, and Princess Katara remained trapped in the physical world, he requested a physical form. The spirits allowed him to take the form of a fish. She’s sat by that pond this whole time, and he’s waited beside her.” 

Katara had tears in her eyes when they left, but she was smiling. “So, my good buddy Ozai’s expecting me?” 

“He sure is. So what’s the plan, Princess?”

Her eyes hardened. “I’m going to kill him,” she proclaimed. 

“You can’t just waltz up to the palace and kill him.” 

“Yes, I can,” she said. “And I will. Zuko and I showed mercy once. We should have killed him instead. I’m not going to make that same mistake again.” 

Aang’s frustration grew. “If you don’t have a plan, you’ll get yourself killed.” 

Katara laughed. “You sound like Zuko.” 

“Well, then, he’s right.” 

She huffed. “Fine. What do you think we should do, Aang the Faithful?”

“Well, first we need to figure out what’s up with this Aang the Unfaithful guy. If the spirits of light sent me, I’d bet the spirits of darkness sent him. He’s gonna back Ozai up.”

She tapped his shoulder with hers. “Then it’s good thing I have you.” 

“The Fire Lord has an entire military at his command.” 

“Yeah, but I know him. He’s arrogant. He won’t kill me right away. He wants to torture me.” 

“And you’d offer yourself up like that?” 

She smiled sadly. “He can’t torture me. Not when I know Zuko’s safe.”

So Aang played along and tied Katara up in chains. He marched her into the palace and brought her before the Fire Lord. Aang the Unfaithful stood astonished at his side. 

“I have done as you asked, my lord. I present to you your love, Katara.” 

Ozai had never looked so terrifying to him as when his eyes found Katara. “I can’t believe it’s really you. I thought I would have to burn another outrider.” 

“So what’s next? Are you going to burn _me_?” she snarled, attempting to wrench out of her chains, which was all part of the act. 

“Oh, no. Not yet. First I’m going to marry you.” 

Aang’s stomach turned, but he showed nothing. He had to make the Fire Lord believe he was still on his side. Across the room, Aang the Unfaithful, glared at him. Ozai placed a hand to Katara’s cheek. 

“Isn’t Zuko watching?” he taunted. “I can still hurt him even if I can’t touch him.”

“Get your hands off of me!” 

“Or what? Your bending’s gone. The spirits took it from you.”

“So is yours. So is everyone’s! You traded the ability to bend for your throne. You gave the spirits you’re working for all of that power back, and they are _still_ no match to the spirits of light!” she shouted back at him. 

“Really? From where I stand, you’re in chains.” He turned to a nearby guard. “Take her to the ladies’ maids. I want her at her best for our wedding tonight. And keep her restrained at all times.”

“Yes, my lord,” he muttered, whisking her away.

“Aang the Faithful,” he called. Aang lightly stepped closer. 

“Yes, my lord?”

“You have served me well. What can I give you in return?” 

“Give him nothing,” said Aang the Unfaithful. “There should be no rewards for our service.” 

“I would request a brief leave to visit my father. He is very sick, and he could be near the end of his life.” 

Ozai disregarded Aang the Unfaithful and granted Aang the Faithful three days to visit his father. Aang felt terrible about leaving Katara in the clutches of the Fire Lord, but he knew she would be able to handle herself. Aang had to find his godfather. His godfather would know what to do when he was at a loss. He was working with forces he didn’t understand. 

Appa flew as fast as he could back to the village in the Southern Air Temple. His godfather was waiting for him once again. 

Out of breath, Aang tried to explain as quickly as possible, “Okay, so I found Katara. I took her back to the palace, but I had to pretend like I wasn’t on her side. Now Ozai’s saying he’s going to marry her so he can torment Zuko all the way in the Spirit World. Aang the Unfaithful _definitely_ wants me dead, and I don’t know how to get out of this one. Please, Godfather, can you give me some advice.” 

His godfather tugged at his beard thoughtfully. “Hmm. First we need tea.” 

Aang’s shoulders slumped. “It really doesn’t seem like the best time for tea. The Fire Lord only granted me three days, and I’ve spent the first trying to find you.” 

But his words fell on deaf ears. His godfather had already left to brew the tea. He returned with two steaming porcelain cups. 

“Go on, take a sip.” 

Aang complied. “It’s very good.” 

“The key is _balance_ ,” his godfather said. “If the flavors are not balanced, the whole pot is a mess.” 

“You’re not just talking about tea, are you?” 

“Do you know about the four elements?” 

“Yes, of course. The world was made of four nations, and each represented one of the elements. Then the Fire Lord went to war with everyone else. My parents used to wonder if I was actually Fire Nation or born from people who were killed in the war.” 

“You are descended from air nomads,” his godfather revealed. “They lived in this temple until the Fire Nation killed them all and sent its own citizens to live in their home.” 

“And what’s bending?” Aang asked, remembering the conversation between Ozai and Katara. 

His godfather smiled. “It’s wonderful. It is the purest connection to our elements. My brother and I were both firebenders. So was Zuko. Katara was a waterbender, one of the best I’ve ever seen. But the spirits of darkness took bending from the world as a payment to install Ozai on the Fire Nation throne and grant his immortality. There is always sacrifice. The spirits of light gave Katara the ability to kill Ozai, but the spirits of darkness helped lock her away. To get something, you must give something. Balance.” 

“So if we want to kill Ozai, what do we have to give?” 

“This is not the first step. First, we need to get Katara’s bending back.” 

“Can we do that?” 

“Yes, my boy. That is _my_ destiny. I will trade my life for Katara’s bending.” 

Aang’s eyes widened. “You can’t do that!”

“For my nephew, for my nation, for the chance to be reunited with my son…yes, I can.”

So they burned incense in the temple and recited the words to conjure the spirits. As the man held his blade just in front of the clothes, he beseeched of his companion, “When you see my nephew again, and you will, tell him his Uncle Iroh loved him. Tell him I always believed in him.” 

“I will.” 

The breath left Iroh in a pained shudder as he thrust the blade into his heart. 

Aang the Faithful cried all the way back to the palace, praying to whoever could hear him that the sacrifice had worked. When he returned, he discovered that the wedding between Fire Lord Ozai and Princess Katara had indeed taken place against her will. She was called Fire Lady Katara now. 

Aang the Unfaithful sneered at him as he walked past. “Has it been three days already?” 

“It has.” 

“How kind of you to arrive just in time for the Fire Lady’s celebratory dinner.” 

“That sounds exciting.” 

“It will be.” 

“Everyone’s invited. Maybe we’ll even see On Ji again.” 

“That would be nice.” 

Aang the Faithful noticed a new pin on his counterpart’s robes. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to it. 

Aang the Unfaithful smiled. “I’ve been promoted to the personal bodyguard of the Fire Lord.” 

_Yep, definitely sent by the dark spirits._

“Well, I guess I’ll go get ready for dinner.” He wanted to get far away from the shiny new sword at Aang the Unfaithful’s hip. 

When dinner came, a long table seated one hundred people in the palace’s grandest dining hall. Fire Lord Ozai sat at one end, Katara at the other. She didn’t look as Aang expected her to. He expected her to be downtrodden and hopeless, perhaps even furious with him for leaving her to be wed to that monster. Instead, she looked regal. He never did ask Iroh if she had married Zuko before he was taken from her. Perhaps this wasn’t her first stint as the Fire Lady. 

“What do we have for entertainment, my lord?” she asked over dinner. Her voice carried across the room. Everyone was eager to hear what she said and see what she looked like; this was the woman so many servants had been burned for. 

“What do you suggest?” he asked. 

She smiled sweetly. “I know a few party tricks.” 

“What do you plan to do?” 

“What would you say if I told you I could take a man’s head off and put it back on, keeping him safe and alive the entire time.” 

The entire table looked to her in wonder, but Ozai replied, “It cannot be done, and it will not be attempted.” 

Everyone poured out their outrage. They wanted to see this trick of hers. “Please, it’s harmless, especially if you say it can’t be done. Aang the Unfaithful, can I try it on you?” 

The table agreed again, calling out to him and yelling that they wanted to see his head removed and reattached. Ozai gave his consent in response to the outcry. Both Fire Lady Katara and Aang the Unfaithful stood. The latter looked nervous. Katara took a deep breath and held her arms out, like she was concentrating on Aang the Unfaithful’s face. 

Then it started. The man’s face turned a horrible shade of red, and the blood from his body came pouring out of his mouth, his nose, his eyes. The table screamed in horror, and Fire Lord Ozai, realizing what was happening, gave the order for his guards to kill her. 

But Aang knew now she could not be stopped. Killing Aang the Unfaithful had tipped favor to the spirits of light even more, and Katara’s bending grew stronger in response. That’s what he was witnessing, he realized–bending. She froze the bodies of each of the guards and concentrated the rest of her energy on the Fire Lord himself. With her arms out, as if she was reaching into him, she bent his body to her command, pulling him closer and closer until he knelt before her. Then, she squashed her outstretched palm into a fist, and Ozai slumped to the ground with a cry of pain. 

Aang knew she had crushed his heart. 

Angry tears streamed down her face as she released her hold on everyone else, and they ran terrified from her. 

“I did it,” she said in disbelief. 

“Yeah, you did,” Aang said, not wanting to admit he was scared of her too. Aang the Unfaithful and Fire Lord Ozai had met bloody fates he had never before imagined. 

“Tell me they deserved it,” she begged. 

“It’s best to move on. To restore balance to the world, they needed to die. You accomplished that.”

She nodded, and in a breath she returned to her normal self. “You have to give to get,” she whispered. “I gave them to the spirits. They’ll give me Zuko back. Peace will always be restored.” 

“Do you know where Zuko’s going to be?” 

She turned to him. “You were given the key to a palace right?”

“Yeah, it’s where I got Appa.”

“He’ll be there.”

He reached for her hand. “Let’s go. I’m sure he’s ready to see you.” 

All the way back, Katara played with her bending. She pulled the water from the clouds and sent the droplets swirling around her hands happily. It was a sight to see. 

“Do you think benders will start getting born again?” 

“Yes,” she said. “I bet there are already some right now.” 

“Now, just so you know, this palace isn’t always here. It kinda comes and goes, so maybe keep that in mind before you get all your hopes up.” 

But the palace was there, just like she said it would be. They landed. She ran to the door and knocked loudly three times while Aang waited on Appa.

With a loud creak, the door opened. Aang knew it was Prince Zuko, though he had never met the man before. 

For a minute, the two of them stared at each other. Both of them were too afraid to blink. 

“You’re here,” she said finally. Her hands reached out to his face. Aang noticed one side of his face was scarred while the other was perfectly smooth. She caressed both sides with her fingertips. 

Then Zuko couldn’t wait any longer. His hands gripped Katara’s waist and pulled her as close as possible. His eyes scanned her form, as if he was checking to make sure she was unharmed. “I am so sorry I couldn’t be there with you.” 

“You were. I kept you in my heart.” She laughed. “We have quite a mess to clean up.” 

“This time we’ll get to do it, though. He’s gone. He can’t hurt us anymore.”

“We’ll never be separated again, right?” 

“Let them try. We’ll find our way back to each other.” 

“Forever and always.” 

Then the prince took his princess deeper into his arms and kissed her until the sun set in the distance. When the stars danced above them, he whispered to her, "Let's go home." Hundreds of years had gone by apart. He would give anything to the spirits to spend hundreds by her side. 


	19. Light Reveals True Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 21: Aurora Borealis; Zuko and Katara during the Siege of the North

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Debated a little bit about whether Zuko would have known Katara's name. I decided that he could have learned her name during the whole "I'll save you from the pirates" sequence of events. Hope you enjoy!

He’s come for Aang, and no matter how hard she tries, she knows in her heart he will take him. **  
**

She is Aang’s last defense. Before she’s been enough, but she is only just now getting the hang of her element. She’s terribly outmatched against the scarred prince’s years of training.

Still she is surrounded by water, and the moon looms high above them. If she ever had a chance against him, it’s now. Aang’s physical form lays upon the snow beside her. She can’t think about anything else but keeping him safe. She also wishes he would hurry up. 

Across from her, Zuko shoots a spray of fire, which she quickly combats with the ice. The attack throws her footing off. He smiles; he’s noticed. 

He launches one fire punch after the other, on alternating sides of her body. She grunts with every defense, but he’s exhausting her. 

“You’re determined,” he calls to her, almost sounding impressed. 

Another one of her water whips goes up in steam. “You have no idea.”

“I’m not going to hurt him.”

“Yes, you are!”

“He’ll have a very comfortable prison cell.”

His comment angers her enough to pull the snow-covered ground from beneath his feet and throw him backwards. 

She’s effectively made him angry. The moonlight catches the fury of his face, his bruised and scarred face. Steam exhales from his mouth and nose. 

“You don’t get to take him. You don’t get to let the rest of the world burn so you can go home!” 

Then their world illuminates. In addition to the moon and stars above, the most beautiful streams of greens, purples, and reds dance across the sky.

Both of them pause to look at the beautiful sky above them in an unspoken ceasefire. She even knows these lights possess enough of the sun’s power to give Zuko an extra edge against her, but he doesn’t once take his eyes from the sky. 

She, however, looks away to study him. 

“They’re called the Northern Lights,” she tells him.

“I know that. I’ve just never seen them before.”

“They’re beautiful.” He only nods in response, never taking his eyes off them. “Back home, we say they appear when our loved ones are trying to send us a message. I’d always think about what my mother would want me to know.”

“Your mother?”

“She’s dead,” Katara explains. “The Fire Nation killed her.” 

Zuko’s eyes finally look down, back to her, back to the snow, back to Aang’s limp form. She prepares herself to fight again. 

“That’s something we have in common.” 

“The Fire Nation killed your mother?”

“I don’t know what they did to her.”

“And you want to go _back_ to them?”

“You don’t understand.”

“I guess not.” She looks back up to the sky and pictures her mother’s face. Her mother would want her to be brave. “So what message is your mother sending you?”

He doesn’t hesitate. “Never forget who you are.”

“So who are you? If you were evil, you would have killed me by now.”

His shoulders slump. “I don’t want to kill you.”

“Then you don’t belong in the Fire Nation, not the way it is now. One of your men is laying a siege on the North Pole right now. He might kill my brother. _He’s_ evil.”

“Zhao isn’t my man. He’s my father’s.”

“He’ll kill all of us for Aang. He’ll kill him too, if that’s what your father wants.”

“I wish I could help you, but I need my honor back. I need to go home. If word gets back that I fought against Zhao, I’m finished.” 

“If Aang gets captured, _I’m_ finished,” she pleads desperately. “He’s my only hope. He’s the world’s only hope.”

“Go.”

“What?”

He looks back up at the lights. “Go!” He shouts. “Get out of here, far away from Zhao!” 

She doesn’t have to be told twice. She’ll find Sokka and have him help her load Aang into Appa’s saddle. They’ll have to fly high, far enough above the clouds that the Fire Nation fleet anchored outside the capital won’t see them. 

“How will you get out?” She asks as she drags Aang, suddenly worried for the prince’s safety. 

“Same way I came in,” he answers and begins walking defeatedly in the opposite direction. 

“Wait, Zuko! If you ever change your mind, there’s always a place with us.”

He hears her. He stops and turns. “Thank you, Katara.” 

“I mean it.”

“I know you do. Thank you.” 

She never tells anyone about her encounter with him under the Northern Lights, not until they’re trapped in the Crystal Catacombs together and he chooses _them_ when they flee Ba Sing Se.

“Still have a place for me?” he asks. 

The Earth Kingdom’s fallen. Azula controls the Dai Li. His uncle’s been captured. But if the Fire Prince has joined them, there’s another reason for hope after all. 

He fits right beside her in Appa’s saddle. The others will take some convincing, but she knows this boy is discovering who he is. He’s figuring out what she’s known this whole time: he belongs here with them. The others will know soon too. 

“Yes.”


	20. The Signs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 22: Blood Moon; Zuko follows the signs to Katara.

He had thought of her as the rain poured down around his home and brought in the fresh scent of fire lilies. Mai had long left him for a less depressing life. Suki had left to marry Sokka; Ty Lee led the Kyoshi warriors now. Aang visited him at peace summits every year. Toph visited much more often. One day he realized he hadn’t heard any news about Katara in ages, and it left him feeling hollow. Just when he toyed with the idea of writing to her, the heavens opened up and her element unexpectedly inundated his capital city. **  
**

He got the message from the universe loud and clear - _write Katara_. 

So he wrote her, and she wrote back. Scroll after scroll passed between them, some short, some long, all of them cherished. While having tea with his uncle, he accepted a letter from Katara and read it right at the table. 

“I’ve never known a piece of parchment to make a man smile so much,” his uncle commented with a raised eyebrow. 

Zuko laughed nervously. Okay, so he had a crush on a waterbender worlds away. His uncle knew. His staff may have even suspected. “Katara sends her warmest regards. I told her you were visiting,” he replied. 

“When are you going to invite her to the Fire Nation, my nephew?” 

“Never.” 

“That is no way to woo a young lady.”

“I’m not trying to woo her.” 

“You should be. She is very extraordinary.”

“I know that.” 

“And you like her. Don’t bother denying it, I know you do.”

Zuko said nothing. His silence was enough of an answer. He skimmed over his most recent letter from Katara, hoping to see anything that hinted at something more than friendship. They did flirt every once in a while - at least he thought it was flirting. _Was_ it flirting if she said on her coldest nights she thought about the summer she spent with him? Or what about the time she joked, “Asking for my advice again, Fire Lord Zuko? Next time you better send me a necklace,” and he had replied, “I’ll make it my top priority to learn how to carve.”

Would she be receptive to staying in the Fire Nation? Would he even be able to see her much during her stay? He was always so busy. She was too. The waterbending school she’d worked tirelessly on was opening at the end of the week. Was the Fire Lord even allowed to take a break? Things had calmed down since he first took the throne, but they weren’t nearly calm enough. 

“Let’s talk about something else.” 

“Very well, but sleep on the matter. An intimate friend is the hardest to find. You and Katara always seemed to understand each other so well. Do not keep her away because you’re afraid of your feelings for her.” 

He slept on it, as his uncle suggested, and dreamed of the house on Ember Island. He was standing at the water’s edge, staring out at the sea. Behind him, he heard laughter. He didn’t have to see the woman to know whose laughter it was.

When he woke, his mind was made up. He was going to invite Katara to spend a week with him at the Ember Island house. They both needed a vacation. Her reply was prompt as always, and his heart sped faster and faster as he broke the seal. He was already thinking of ways to draft an apology when he read the line, “Yes, please! I can’t think of anything better than a beach trip.” 

Now how was he going to tell her she was the only one he invited? 

He decided the best thing to do would be to leave it up to her. He asked if she wanted to pass the invitation along to any of their friends. She replied that everyone else was too busy to go. His mind dueled between two thoughts: _Hmm. Busy. Sure they are_ …and… _Maybe they actually are. They lead complex lives._

Even his staff was not accompanying him to the house. They had orders to stay at the palace and wait on his uncle, who was acting as Fire Lord in his place. It would just be him and Katara. It would be perfect. Now if he could just get his palms to stop sweating. 

“Zuko!”

He smiled fondly. “Katara.” 

They both made the decision to embrace each other at the same time. It was the happiest he’d felt in months. 

“It’s so good to see you,” she said. “Letters are one thing, but to actually visit…”

“I know. We’re overdue for some catching up.” 

“We are.” 

It was such a large house for two people. It didn’t take Katara long to unpack the items she’d brought and pour herself a cool drink. She jumped onto one of the sitting room’s benches and rested her legs comfortably along the arm. As she relaxed, Zuko was able to appreciate just how beautiful she was. 

She closed her eyes. “I can’t tell you how much I needed to get away.” 

“I’ll drink to that.” 

“Are we going down to the beach soon?” 

He shrugged his shoulders. “It’ll be dark soon.” 

She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Even better. I can’t wait to see what the moon’s going to look like tonight.”

“Why do you say that?” 

She looked down at her hands. “My bending’s felt a little different all day.”

His eyebrows raised. “So has mine.” 

“Really? Like weaker?”

“No, it’s been stronger.”

“But my bending’s been stronger,” she told him. 

“Huh. That’s strange. We draw from opposite sources.” 

She jumped off the bench. “Well now we _have_ to go to the beach,” she said. 

They walked out onto the sand with two blankets and laid them side by side. She sat on one, and he sat on the other. The sun was setting in the sky, in an array of reds and oranges he didn’t get to appreciate nearly as much when he was acting as the Fire Lord. 

“I’m so glad we’re writing to each other now,” she told him. 

“Me too.” 

“What made you write that first letter?” she wondered. 

He turned to her. Her blue eyes looked even prettier out in the fleeting daylight. “It’s going to sound stupid.”

“I won’t think it’s stupid. I promise.” 

“Okay, so it rained in the capital. It poured for a whole day nonstop, and before I had been thinking about how you were the only one I hadn’t heard from since…well since I was crowned. I don’t know. I guess I took it as a sign that I needed to talk to you.” 

“What if it hadn’t rained?”

“But it did rain. I’m just saying that-“

“You only decided to write me because of the weather.” 

He couldn’t believe she was getting angry about this. “Ugh, don’t you believe in signs?”

“Not as much as you apparently.”

“Please, you believe in fortune tellers, and destiny, and all that.”

“Not anymore!” She protested. “Turns out those fortunes were wrong, and my destiny was wrong.”

He hoped she wasn’t referring to Aang. He had thought the two of them parted amicably, much more amicably than he had with Mai. 

“I would have written you even if it hadn’t rained,” he assured her. 

And if he hadn’t, he would have regretted it because even if she was harping on him, he was with her on a beach and enjoying every second. 

“Good.”

“You could have written me too,” he pointed out. “Why’d you wait for me?”

“I don’t know. You just seemed busy.” 

“I am, but not too busy for my friends. I enjoy your letters.”

She smiled at him. The light was fading more now, and the air was getting cooler. “I enjoy yours too.” She laughed. 

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” But she kept laughing. It made him self-conscious.

“Seriously, what?”

“Just thinking about Sokka. Whenever a letter comes from you, he usually gets it first and he always says ‘here’s another letter from your boyfriend.’”

He laughed nervously. “That is funny. Yeah, um, Uncle teases me too.”

“Really?”

“But I always correct him. I tell him we’re just friends.”

“Yeah.” 

“I mean, we just exchange letters.” 

“Yep, but those letters have really rekindled our friendship, and they mean a lot to me…”

“They mean a lot to me too,” he insisted. “I save them.”

Her eyes widened. “You do?”

He could feel his whole face going red. Was there a platonic way to say he kept them in a locked chest beside his bed? “Yeah.” 

Her whole face brightened. “I save yours too.” Then he saw her shiver. 

Without thinking, he stood up and shook out the blanket from beneath him. He draped it over Katara’s shoulders and she wrapped herself in the fabric. She smiled up at him gratefully and patted the space beside her on the blanket she’d been sitting on. When he sat down, his leg was pressed against hers. He decided to lean back all the way and cradle his head in his hands. She did the same. He felt the warmth of her body laying beside his. 

“Zuko, look!” she exclaimed. 

His eyes followed her outstretched hand, all the way to the moon, which had turned crimson in the matter of minutes. 

“What in the world?” he asked. 

“That’s what’s affecting our bending!”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” 

“Doesn’t it look amazing?”

“Yes. Is it an eclipse?” 

“I think so, but it’s making us stronger instead of weaker.” 

“I wonder why that is,” he said, more to himself than her. 

She turned on her side towards him, staring at his face. He met her gaze. “Do you think it’s a _sign_?” she said teasingly. 

“Yes.” 

She rolled her eyes at him, but then he pushed closer and wrapped an arm across her shoulder. His fingers played with her hair. He could hear her breath catch, even over the thrum of his pulse in his ears. If there was ever a sign that he was meant to be with her, this red moon, this manifestation of their elements reigning the sky together, was it. He pressed his lips to hers and felt the exhilarating bliss of the moment that would change his life forever. When they finally pulled away from each other, hours later with earnest smiles and no intention of spending the night apart, the moon had already returned to its pallor. 

Katara could never mock him for his superstitions again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I looked up how long a total lunar eclipse lasts, and the time I found was 3 hours and 40 minutes. I like to think this is how long Zuko and Katara made out on that beach. Thanks for reading!


	21. All Along Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 24: You're in love with him/her; The final part of the All Along series.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! This is the final part of the modern AU I've had so much fun writing this month! I am so glad you've been enjoying it. 
> 
> In case you were wondering why I skipped Day 23, it's another instance of my entry doubling as an update to my story Hopeless.

Tea always tastes better when Uncle makes it. He’s halfway through a cup of ginger tea during his lunch break. Sokka is all too happy to interrupt this break. Not that he doesn’t want to see Sokka; he just thought he’d be able to have a minute to think to himself. **  
**

“So how was the concert?” Sokka asks.

“It was good.”

“Katara called me raving last night. Told me about how much fun she had.” 

He smiles. “Good. I’m glad she did.”

“I didn’t know you bought _both_ tickets,” mentions Sokka with a quirk of an eyebrow. 

Zuko tenses. “It was my idea anyways. I thought it was only right to pay.” 

Sokka laughs. “Yeah, ‘it was only right.’ As soon as she told me that, it all made sense to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about all the times you stuck up for her when we were kids. I’m talking about that play you hated doing, how you went to our prom together, all those late night chats when we were in college, the parties, the family dinners, and I can’t believe I didn’t realize it until this damn concert. You’re in love with my sister!” 

Zuko chokes on his sip of tea. “ _What_?” 

“You are!” 

“You’re crazy.” 

“I’m not. Then I talked to Suki about it, and she told me Katara’s been in love with you even longer.”

“She had a crush on me when we were kids,” he corrects. She isn’t interested in him like that anymore. Internally, he’s panicking. Are his feelings becoming so obvious? 

“No, no, it’s more than a crush, and it’s still going on. You guys have even gone all _flirty face_ in front of me, but I thought there was nothing to it! I can’t believe it took me this long to piece it all together.” 

“There’s nothing to piece together!” Zuko argues. 

But Sokka shakes his head and smiles. “So when are you seeing her again?” 

“Goodbye, Sokka. I’ll be finishing my break somewhere else.” 

Behind him, he can faintly hear Sokka calling him back and insisting it’s not a big deal, but to Zuko, the thought of pursuing his feelings for Katara, the accusation that he’s _in love_ with Katara. Then there’s the even more outlandish thought of Katara being in love with him…does he even have reason to be hopeful? 

He reaches for his phone and calls her immediately. “Katara, it’s Zuko.”

She laughs. “I know, silly.” 

“Um, do you have plans tonight?” 

“I was going to study-”

“Oh, well, then nevermind.”

“No, Zuko, it’s okay. What did you want to do?”

“I was thinking we could have dinner.” 

She squeals delightedly. “Oooh, where?”

“Um, does Ba Sing Se sound okay?”

“Ba Sing Se?” He can hear the surprise in her voice and hopes it doesn’t mean she’ll turn him down. “Isn’t that kinda upscale?”

“A little, I think.” 

“A little? Zuko, that place is black tie only. It’s really expensive too.”

“Don’t worry about the cost.”

“Are you sure? What’s the occasion?” 

_I’m going to put my entire heart out in front of you, so I might as well get a really good meal out of it._ “I just think it’ll be fun to go out.” 

“We went out last night,” she reminds him, with a lilt in her voice that makes him think she’s smiling. 

“And wasn’t it fun?” 

“Yeah, it was. I’ll see you tonight, Zuko.” 

“See you tonight.” 

* * *

Katara arrives before Zuko does. It makes her even more nervous. She looks down at the time on her phone and inhales sharply. Is she really _that_ early? 

She heads over to the restaurant’s bar and slaps her pale blue clutch against the bar’s crystal counter. Since Zuko called her, she has spent the entire day getting ready, to the point that her roommate kicked her out of their dorm, saying, “just go on your date already.”

 _Is that what this is_ , she wonders. Two friends attending a crowded concert is one thing, but an intimate dinner in the city’s most romantic restaurant? 

A hand taps her shoulder. She spins around to find Zuko smiling at her. His hair has gel in it, and his suit looks freshly pressed. She catches a scent of his delicious-smelling cologne. 

“You’re early,” she says. 

“So are you.” He glances at the empty spot beside her. “Can I join you?” 

“Of course. You look so handsome, by the way.” 

He takes the chance to look at her head to toe, from her loose curls to the makeup she spent half an hour perfecting, to her off-the-shoulder blue-grey dress she recycled from prom with Toph and Aang. 

“You look beautiful. Drink?” 

“Please. I’d love a sidecar.” 

He signals to the bartender, who had not been able to get to Katara yet before Zuko arrived. “Can we have a sidecar and an old fashioned, please?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

A violinist plays in the background. After a minute, she realizes she recognizes the song. “This is Yangchen’s Sonata,” she tells him. 

He looks down at his hands, folded together on the counter. “You love the arts.” 

“Yeah,” she says quizzically, wondering why he finds it worth mentioning. 

“I do too, begrudgingly. My mom ingrained it in me.”

“I know you do.” 

“And you are so strong-willed. You’re also the kindest person I’ve ever met. You’re always involved in some new volunteer project.” 

Their drinks arrive. They both take sips of them before Katara asks, “Zuko, what are you doing?” 

“I’m listing the things I love about you.”

She feels like she’s going to faint. He looks a little weary himself. “ _Why_?” 

“Do you want me to answer that before or after dinner?”

“What does it matter?”

“The answer may affect whether or not you want to stay. You might never want to speak to me again.”

She shakes her head. “Just answer.”

“I’m listing all of the things I love about you, so it’s less of a shock when I tell you I have feelings for you.”

They pause for a beat, frozen in time. 

“Do you still want to have dinner?” 

She nods enthusiastically, feeling her whole face break out into an unabashed smile. “Yes.”

They both smile as they sip their drinks. For a minute, things remain casual between them to the point that Katara just _has_ to make her own confession. 

“You’re the hardest worker I’ve ever met. You don’t even need to be. Your family could give you anything you want, but you don’t let yourself rely on them. You’re smart, and you’re kind. You are so talented, and I have had feelings for you off and on since I was thirteen years old. I tried to stop because I decided it was never going to happen between us, but then we became such good friends again that I started to think that maybe there was a chance.”

She feels her voice waver with emotion as she speaks. This is the most vulnerable she’s ever felt in her entire life. It is the hardest, yet most natural, confession as she observes the adorable bewilderment in Zuko’s golden eyes. 

Then he kisses her. It’s reserved, too reserved for her liking. Of course Zuko is conscious that they’re in public. When he pulls away, she’s already desperate to have him back. 

“You were my first kiss,” she says, just to say something. She hates these uncertain pauses, though that kiss leaves nothing to interpretation. 

“I know. You were mine.” 

Her eyes widen. “You never told me that.” 

“I was embarrassed.”

“You shouldn’t have been.”

“And that time you kissed me at prom had me so confused that I couldn’t take Mai back when she asked me. I wanted to before then.”

“That’s when I tried to give you up,” she admits. She squeezes his hand. “Tried being the operative word. I couldn’t.” 

“I don’t want you to.” 

They finish their drinks holding each other’s hands. He checks the time and realizes it’s close enough to the time of their reservation. 

“Are you ready for dinner?” 

“Yeah.” 

And after this meal, she plans to kiss him absolutely senseless, this boy loves her, who she’s loved all along. 


	22. Up in the Penthouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 25: Forced to share a hotel room; With her connecting flight canceled, Katara heads over to a nearby hotel and tries to make the best of her situation. It doesn't hurt that the hotel owner's son is there too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this premise so much I might continue it sometime. Hope you enjoy!

This was _so_ not how Katara had planned to spend her holidays. Back in the South, her house was filled with her family members. Right about now, her dad would be lighting a fire, her mom would be cooking a delicious sea prune stew, and Gran Gran would be badgering Sokka about setting the table. It had been the family get-together she’d been looking forward to all year long. **  
**

But of course, she had gotten stuck in a blizzard, and flights out were canceled for the next two days. That hadn’t left her much of a choice other than taking a cab over to the nearest hotel and begging for a room.

“You mean you don’t have _any_ availability?” 

The concierge at the counter looked over her computer in sympathy. “Well, we do have the penthouse suite, but that’s usually reserved for-”

“Cut her a break, Toph. It’s the holidays. The chances of him actually showing up are slim to none.” 

Toph shrugged her shoulders. “Okay, but if he does show up, you’re the one who has to tell him we put someone in the penthouse.” 

The other concierge, a boy who looked fresh out of high school named Aang, accepted this fate and called a bellhop over to help Katara with her bags. 

She had to admit the room was absolutely gorgeous, like _take your breath away_ gorgeous. The tables and counters were all made from marble, and accents across the suite were the loveliest shade of gold. From what she could tell, there were four bedrooms, fit for an entire family, and when she stepped into the master bathroom and saw the most inviting Jacuzzi tub ever, she thought maybe this wasn’t such an awful turn of events after all. 

Her bags were stacked in the corner of the sitting room when she hurled herself on top of the red silk sheets on the master bed. She had never laid on such a comfortable bed before. She could take a nap right there, after the stressful day she had, waiting and waiting for a flight that kept getting pushed back until it was finally canceled altogether. 

Outside, she could see the snow surrounding the city, but inside, she was toasty as could be. She got up to put the kettle on for a relaxing cup of tea and threw on some flannel pajamas. A nap didn’t sound like such a bad idea after all. 

* * *

“Hey, Toph. Hey, Aang.” 

Usually his friends at the hotel smiled at him when he visited, but today their eyes widened and their bodies stilled. 

“What? Is there something on my face?”

Toph nudged Aang forcefully. He cleared his throat and said, “Zuko, we weren’t expecting you. We thought you’d be at the Ember Island Resort with your family for the holidays.” 

Zuko folded his sunglasses into the breast pocket of his collared shirt. “That _was_ the plan, but even the family jet wouldn’t take me any further in this weather. It was lucky we were able to land here. Can you get Jet to bring my bags up to my room?”

“Um, Zuko, about your room…” Toph began.

“What about it?” he looked between the two of them suspiciously. “Did one of the maids ruin the floors again?” 

“No, that’s not it,” said Aang. “Just go on up. You’re in for a little surprise.” 

“I hate surprises,” he muttered to himself, but he was so tired from the jet that he didn’t have the patience to entertain Aang’s silly notions any further. He did notice Toph smirking out of the corner of his eye, which made him uneasy for a second before he entered the familiar elevator. He and Azula used to visit every floor when they were kids, looking for something to do. 

He kept his key to the penthouse on him at all times. In one lazy motion, he plucked the card from his wallet, swiped it, and unlocked the door. Immediately, however, he noticed something was off in his favorite home. A few things, actually. For one, there was luggage right beside his door that definitely did not belong to him. The kettle was on the stove, an abandoned mug on the counter. Most notably, upon further inspection, there was a _whole entire woman_ sleeping in the master bedroom. 

“How did you get in here?” he shouted, effectively startling her out of a peaceful slumber. 

It took a second for her eyes to adjust, but when they did, she jumped up from the bed. “Who are you, and what are you doing in my room?” she screamed. 

“Who are you, and what are you doing in _my_ room?”

“Your room?” she exclaimed. “I reserved it first, fair and square.” 

“This room can’t be reserved. It’s my personal home when I’m in the area.” 

“What do you, like, _own_ the hotel or something?”

“No, but my father does.” 

The girl’s manner towards him changed immediately. “Look, I’m sorry. They didn’t tell me any of that downstairs. They said I could stay here. I’m waiting for the snow to clear, so I can go home to my family for the holidays.” 

Some of his anger subsided. He was still going to strangle Toph and Aang later. He knew they were the ones behind this mess. “Me too.” 

“I’m pretty sure this is the only room available in the area too. I don’t know what I’m going to do. Every flight out is canceled for the next two days.” 

She sounded so desperate, and he felt kind of sorry for yelling at her the way he did. “Hey, um, it’s a pretty big suite. You can stay here in one of the spare bedrooms until you get something worked out.”

Her whole face broke out into an adorably wide grin, and the sadness in her eyes began to fade. “Really?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Thank you so much! I’ll be a really good suitemate, I promise. You won’t regret this. Do you want any tea? I know I put the kettle on before I went to bed. It may still be warm.” 

She was pretty, he realized. She was pretty, bubbly, and looked adorable in her blue flannel pajamas. They brought out the lovely blue of her eyes. He was in so much trouble. 

“Sure. Tea sounds great.”

It was going to be a long two days. 


	23. The River of Bones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 26: Rainstorm; Before the Avatar is discovered in the South Pole, Katara goes on her own to look for him. She finds the Fire Nation's banished prince along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an AU I've been excited to write all month. Hope you enjoy!

There are bones at the bottom of that river. It’s how it got its name in the first place; Fire Nation names aren’t too creative. The River of Bones divides the outermost island of the Fire Nation archipelago, flowing from one end of the sea to the other. 

The bones at the bottom belong to waterbenders- _one hundred years’_ worth of waterbenders. Now they’re all gone, not a single one left to drown, so the war camps along the river sit abandoned, and the water flows undisturbed. 

It is the perfect place for a banished prince. He crouches down to the river and cups his hands to collect enough to wash his face. It’s still a shock to feel the leathery skin on the left side. He wonders if he’ll ever get used to it. 

“Hold it right there,” shouts a voice downstream. 

Zuko panics. This is Fire Nation territory. He’s not allowed in Fire Nation territory. If anyone catches him violating the terms of his banishment… well, he’ll be at the bottom of the river too. 

“Hey, wait!” she shouts again.

He runs. Isn’t that why he has his scar? Isn’t cowering from fights what he’s good at? 

But he’s not fast enough. The dark-haired girl chases after him, and then suddenly, with one glance over his shoulder, the river swallows him whole. The water fills his lungs immediately, and he opens his eyes to see if he can find which direction the light is coming from. He needs to swim to the surface, but no matter how hard he kicks his legs, he’s still stuck beneath the water. Just when he thinks this is the end, he rises slowly to the surface, gasping for breath. He’s never been happier to feel the rays of the sun. 

The happiness is short-lived when he sees the girl standing on the bank of the river. She holds her arms out in front of her, and deftly separates them to the opposite sides of her body. The water follows her, parting enough to allow him to step onto the bank. She drops her arms and offers to help him. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hold you under that long. I was just surprised. This part of the island’s supposed to be abandoned,” she explains. 

He’s still coughing when he answers. “I know. That’s why I’m here. Why are you?”

She shrugs. “I’m kinda regrouping.” 

“Regrouping for what?” Then he can’t help but blurt out, “You’re a waterbender!”

“Yeah,” she says quizzically, like it’s nothing to her. 

“I thought all the waterbenders were dead.” 

She looks down sadly at the river. “From what I can tell, I’m the last one. Everyone else is down there, aren’t they?” 

He nods solemnly. “What are you doing in Fire Nation territory, and outing yourself like that? They’ll kill you if they get their hands on you.” 

She rolls her eyes. “You sound like my brother. What are you doing here?” 

Where does he begin? “Okay, don’t freak out. I’m Fire Lord Ozai’s son.” 

“ _Excuse me_?” 

“But I’m banished,” he assures her. “I’m not associated with him anymore. He doesn’t want anything to do with me, and I don’t think I want anything else to do with him either. I just don’t want to leave the Fire Nation completely. I love it here.” 

“Your own father banished you?” she asks. 

_He burned me too_ , but he hasn’t known her long enough to get into all of that yet. “It’s easier to understand if you’re from the Fire Nation.” 

“I don’t care where you’re from. You don’t banish your son. How old are you anyways, wandering through by yourself?” 

“I just turned fourteen.” 

“See, you’re just a kid.” 

He takes offense. She can’t be older than he is. “You’re just a kid!”

“Yeah, I know. I ran away on my own.”

“Why would you do that?”

“I needed to learn how to bend, and between you and me,” she leans in close and whispers, “I’m looking for the Avatar.” 

“The Avatar’s been dead for 100 years.” 

She shrugs. “It can’t hurt to look. I don’t have anything better to do. Do you?” 

He supposes he doesn’t. His father has exiled him from his home, and he won’t admit it out loud, but the loneliness is taking its toll on him. He’d even take his sister at this point, though he wishes he could see his uncle. 

“So do you want any help from a banished prince?” 

She smiles. “Yes, please! I’ve had to do everything myself. Do you have any skills?”

“I firebend.” He punctuates his remark with a quick flick of flame from his wrist. It sizzles on the water while she watches in awe. 

“Wow, you bend so good.” 

He hears longing in her voice, and he is reminded of how he always felt compared to Azula. He tells her, “You bend good too. You have steady control of the water.” 

“I’m still really clumsy. I’m self-taught.” 

“You’ll only get better. You just need to work at it,” he promises her. That’s how he improved in his bending. He spent hours every day working on his connection to his element, learning from the greatest masters his father could get his hands on. 

“It’s going to rain tonight. I’ll be able to practice some more.” 

He looks up. There isn’t a cloud in the sky. “You can tell it’s going to rain tonight?”

“Yep. It’s going to be heavy too.” Her face lights up. “Maybe the river will flood. Then I’ll have a lot to work with.” 

“If the river floods, it’ll make it harder for us to travel,” he reminds her.

“We’ll be fine,” she says nonchalantly, elevating water droplets towards her from the flowing river at their feet. 

He huffs. “Are you always so…so… _.positive_?” 

“Are you always so pouty?” she returns. 

“I don’t know if this is going to work.” 

She pats his shoulder like they’ve been lifelong friends. “Come on, two kids out to find the missing Avatar - what could go wrong?” 

The river floods that night, just like she said it might. He learns her name is Katara, and she’s a chief’s daughter, though she says her father doesn’t know she’s gone; he’s too busy fighting the war. Katara stays up all night working with the water, pushing herself further and further until she drives herself mad with frustration. He finally coaxes her into getting some sleep, but the next day, she’s back in the rainstorm trying again. The fact that she’s a waterbender training in the River of Bones isn’t lost on him. Once he sees how determined she is and discovers that she truly believes she’s going to find the Avatar, he realizes the two of them are more alike than he thought. Eventually, she convinces him to leave the Fire Nation and travel east to the Earth Kingdom. By then, he learns to smile when she pats his shoulder. He learns to think of her as his life-long friend. 


	24. Flutter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 27: Heartbeat; Toph reflects on a tragedy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter does involve a miscarriage. My heart goes out to all the women who have experienced them. I promise the next entry will be less angsty.

Toph had been the first to know. Before Katara had a reason to cry herself to sleep, and Zuko had a reason to cancel his meetings, Toph had known, and for the first time since the badgermoles showed her how to see the world, she felt cursed. 

Usually, she loved knowing. She loved feeling the heartbeats of everyone around her, how they fluctuated from nervousness to excitement to exhaustion, how she could detect when someone wasn’t telling the truth. 

In the same way that she had been the first to know the tragedy, she had also been the first to know the joy. She had felt the tiny flutter of a heartbeat syncing with Katara’s own rhythm and listened to the way their little baby (already she imagined Zuko and Katara with a little girl) lived inside her.

They were going to be parents, and they didn’t even know it yet. 

When they did know it, the whole palace was celebrating with them. The nation had been waiting long enough for an heir. People speculated if the child would bend fire or water; some said the child might not bend at all. They listed names for the royal couple; ministers proposed arranged marriages between their children and the unborn prince or princess, which Katara had been all too happy to refuse. 

Katara’s heartbeat had been perfectly happy since she discovered the news. Zuko’s had been excited and nervous, and their heartbeats still increased disgustingly when they caught sight of the other. Did they have to be so sickeningly in love all the time? 

Then one day, Toph had been having tea with Suki and Katara in the gardens. Katara stood up to look at the flowers blooming, too quickly, if the racing of her heart and her baby’s heart was anything to go by, and fallen to the ground. 

“Katara!” Suki called, checking her porcelain cup for any traces of poison. “Katara! Guards!”

They’d all been at her side in an instant, trying to wake her from unconsciousness. Toph, however, stood still through all the commotion. She could tell Katara was fine. The baby inside her, on the other hand, was not. 

Katara woke, bleeding and clutching at her stomach, cloaking her hands in the blue waters of the pond in an impossible attempt to save her baby. 

Toph didn’t see Katara again for days, and she didn’t see Zuko either, but she sensed them. She sensed them in their rooms, holding each other tightly, leaning on each other through it all. 

Toph cursed the spirits. Couldn’t they let her friends have their happy ending? They’d fought tirelessly for world peace. They’d given their childhoods to the masses. Now here they were, still fighting. Zuko constantly warded off assassination attempts. Katara dealt with a resentful nation. Suki, as the head of the Kyoshi Warriors, lived hundreds of miles from Sokka, who worked day and night to rebuild the Southern Water Tribe. Aang scoured the world for airbenders he could never find, and Toph would have been content if her friends could just be happy.

Months later, when Katara had healed enough to have tea with them once again, and Zuko had returned to the fury and frustration of his cabinet meetings, Toph felt the flutter again. 

It was faint at first. She thought she might have imagined it, but then it kept beating steadily. She asked the spirits not to take this one. This one was going to stay with them. Her friends’ happiness was not too much to ask for. 


	25. Queen of Gems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 28: Ancient; Zuko and Katara take a tour of Zuko's vault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a companion piece to my one-shot Article IV, but it can also be read on its own. Hope you enjoy!

“Zuko, it’s beautiful.” **  
**

“Hold it to the light,” he instructs and carefully grasps her hand in his own. Together, they shine the beautiful ruby comb into the sun.

Her breath catches. “Wow.” 

“It was my mother’s.” 

“Are you sure you want to give it to me?”

“Who better to wear it than the Fire Lady?” 

She can’t argue with that logic, though it feels incredibly intimate to wear his mother’s comb in her hair. 

Zuko is rummaging through other ancient treasures in the vault, and she takes this moment to study him secretly. He will be her husband, this old enemy and old friend. She can’t let the intimacy scare her, though it comes with awkwardness too. They still tiptoe around each other as their wedding date looms closer, though there are moments like this one when she’s overwhelmed with the most pleasant fluttering in her stomach.

“You look like you’re looking for something specific,” she notices. 

“I am. It’s supposed to be _right_ –oh, here it is.” He pulls out a box engraved with the Fire Nation insignia and delicately opens it. He hesitates for a moment and stares at whatever treasure lurks inside. The anticipation is too much for Katara, and she steps closer to peer over his shoulder. 

“ _Spirits_ ,” she whispers. 

“This was the ring given from the first Fire Lord to his wife. It’s been worn by every Fire Lady. I understand if you don’t want to wear it, since it was worn by Sozin’s wife and Azulon’s wife…” he trails off there, holding the ring out to her for her inspection. The band is solid gold, but it is the lovely jade jewel at the center that catches her attention. She traces her finger along the square edges and marvels at the green stone. 

“No, I want to wear it,” she insists.

“Are you sure?”

She’s sure. Though it was worn by the women married to the instigators of the world destruction she’d inherited, she thinks it is a symbol of progress since. When Azulon reigned, no one would ever imagine a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe would ever rule beside his grandson.

She will. She’ll rule beside him. She’ll wear his mother’s comb in her hair because she can tell it’s important to him. She’ll wear this ancient ring because it’s important to her. 

“Yes,” she slides it onto the third finger of her right hand and looks down on it admiringly. 

“Uh, it actually goes on the left hand, on the fourth finger.”

She pinches her face at him. “It has its own spot?”

“Another ancient belief, for men who give women rings,” he explains while carefully reaching for her left hand to switch the ring’s placement.

“What’s the belief?” she asks. 

His cheeks darken, and he nervously fiddles with his hair. It makes her smile. “It’s said that, um, there’s a vein in that finger that runs directly to the heart.” 

“Oh.” 

She wonders if he can feel her pulse quicken as he slides the ring into its new place. She wonders if he has to touch her so tenderly. 

“So, I have a meeting that I need to be getting to…”

“Right, of course!” she replies, a little too loudly to her own ears. It may be because she can feel her own heartbeat inside them. “Thanks for taking me here, and giving me the jewelry. They’re absolutely beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like them.”

They walk out of the vault together, and the firebending guards tip their heads in deference as the two of them pass. When they arrive back at the courtyard of the palace, she supposes it is time for them to part their ways. 

“I guess I’ll see you at dinner.”

He smiles. “Yep. See you then.”

When he finally passes, she exhales a deep breath and wills herself to _calm down already_. Spirits, she hopes when they marry, the tension will finally dissipate.


	26. King and Queen of Peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 29: Crown; Zuko and Katara finally marry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's a whole month late. Thank you for reading this collection written for Zutara Month 2020! It's been so fun to write these stories! Hope everyone is staying safe!

The colors are her idea. She may be marrying the Fire Lord in the Fire Nation at the height of summer, but she is adamant that their wedding will not be a garish affair of red. **  
**

“Wait, how many robes did you say I’d have?”

“Three.” 

“ _Three_?” he exclaims. 

“I’ll have three, too,” she protests in an attempt to make him feel better. “You’ll have one yellow, one blue, and one white.” 

“And you?”

“One green, one red, one white. But my white one will have a full skirt with all the colors underneath, so you’ll see them when we dance.”

“How many noblemen are lying unconscious in my halls?”

She laughs and places the designs in front of him. “I know it’s not traditional, but I think it’s really important for our wedding to commemorate the peace we helped to build.”

“It is important,” he affirms, padding through the designs. “I think they’re perfect.” 

They keep many of the traditional practices of a Fire Nation wedding, as well as the informal pre-wedding ceremonies of the Water Tribes. One tradition they keep is the separate transport of the bride and groom. They each take an open carriage from opposite sides of the city for the people to see them in the streets. He wears his yellow robes as he waves to the people gathered to see him.

The power of the summer solstice swells in his veins as Katara’s carriage approaches their altar in the Royal Plaza. She greets these future citizens of hers in green, wearing a crown yellow flowers woven through her hair. 

She looks absolutely beautiful. 

She is escorted to him, standing high on the altar with three Fire Sages, by the members of her family. Hakoda, Sokka, and Kanna wear the traditional blue dress of their tribe; Katara’s green dress stands out even more against them. 

It is a Water Tribe tradition for the father of the bride to place the bride’s hand in the groom’s. Hakoda kisses her cheek, places her hand in his, and her family leaves them alone on the altar. 

“Please kneel,” the head Fire Sage says. 

She smiles as they kneel facing each other. The other two sages dress them in their second layer. For the formal wedding ceremony and Katara’s coronation, he will wear her colors, and she will wear his to signify their dedication to each other.

He hopes the ceremony will be short because it’s hot enough outside wearing one layer. She looks like she’s thinking similarly. He wonders if she can read his mind when he discreetly bends the sweat from his face. He’ll tease her later for this. These extra clothes had been her idea after all. 

“Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, Fire Lord Zuko has offered you marriage. Do you accept?”

“Yes, I accept.”

“Do you understand that your marriage will appoint you as the First Lady of the Fire Nation?” 

“Yes, I understand.” 

“Do you solemnly promise to govern the people of the Fire Nation lawfully, justly, and mercifully?”

“Yes, I solemnly promise.” 

“Do you promise to love this man to the end of your days?”

“Yes, I promise.” 

The head Fire Sage dips his thumb in warmed oil and brushes it across Katara’s forehead. 

“Fire Lord Zuko, do you wish to recant your offer of marriage?”

“No.”

“Do you promise to love this woman to the end of your days?”

“Yes, I promise.”

His eyes close as the warm oil seeps into the skin of his forehead. 

“As Agni’s servant, I bind this man and this woman as husband and wife. You may seal your union with a kiss.” 

All Zuko can muster through the glorious ringing in his ears is a gentle peck against Katara’s lips before the Head Sage asks Katara to kneel once again. He holds the crown of the Fire Lady high above Katara’s head for everyone in the Royal Plaza to see. He lowers it gingerly to the topknot in her hair. 

A green dress beneath red robes. A blue necklace at her throat. Yellow flowers in her hair. And a golden crown shining beneath the sun. 

The three sages exclaim: “All hail Fire Lord Zuko! All hail Fire Lady Katara!”

The crowd cheers below them. Later tonight fireworks will shoot off from the palace. Festivities will continue for another week. They’ll be shut up at the Ember Island house by then, finally alone. One more outfit change, one more party, and then they’ll be free from it all. 

“All hail Fire Lord Zuko! All hail Fire Lady Katara!” 

_King and Queen of Peace._


End file.
